Indian Team Management Wants Seniors To Stick Around After Virat Kohli's Sudden Step Down As Test Captain Of India- Reports
Published - 16 Jan 2022, 01:45 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 01:03 AM
Indian cricket team is currently under the turmoil in the last few days as series of events that have transpired doesn’t look appealing for a great future.
First the COVID-19 pandemic has once again forced the BCCI to hold the Ranji Trophy, India’s premier domestic competition in red-ball format.
The Virat Kohli-led Indian side lost the Test series to an inexperienced South Africa team despite starting with a clinical win in Centurion to only lose the remaining two matches by seven wickets each.
A day after losing the Test series to Proteas, Kohli announced to relinquish his Test captaincy duty for India just a month after he was sidelined from white-ball captaincy.
With all the circumstances which are appearing to become detrimental to the future of the Indian cricket team, the form of senior players like Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, which has been the subject for a long time, will have to be looked at by the team management.
Indian team management doesn’t want to make wholesome changes by dropping experienced players
According to a report by the Times of India, sources say that the team management is likely to stick with the experienced players as the youngsters haven’t played enough cricket in the domestic (Ranji) circuit.
“There’s no Ranji Trophy cricket. There are no new faces coming through. What happens if some of the young boys struggle to get going or get injured? If you drop experienced players, they don’t have Ranji matches to go back and regain form. But anyway, you have to go back to them. That doesn’t really serve the purpose of building a team for the future,” a source was quoted as saying by TOI.
“The management doesn’t want to make wholesome changes at one go. It wants experienced players around till youngsters gain experience, the source further added.
Do India A tours need revival?
The India A tours didn’t take place at all since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic until a team led by Saurashtra player Priyank Panchal was sent to South Africa to play three unofficial Test matches in the November-December period.
“The first objective of the board should be to get the ‘A’ programme running. The present selectors have a difficult job. They have to judge players on white-ball cricket because that’s all that has happened in India in two years. They have to see who can do well in red-ball cricket,” a source said.
Reports have suggested that white-ball skipper Rohit Sharma and his deputy KL Rahul will be the top contenders to become India’s new Test captain.
