There Are Little Holes We Need To Fill - Rohit Sharma Focused On Creating India's Template In T20I

India‘s new full-time T20I skipper, Rohit Sharma, spoke about giving role clarity to players and creating a new template for the team in the shortest format.

Indian cricket enters a new era with Rahul Dravid as the head coach and Rohit Sharma as the T20I captain. Their first assignment is up against New Zealand in 3-match series starting Wednesday.

Following India’s group-stage exit at the T20 World Cup in the UAE, Rohit Sharma asserted that having a set template is “very important” for the team going forward. The opener felt that the team had played well in recent years despite not having a single ICC title to show.

“Template is a very important one and we need to set it right. We’ve got some time to do that. India has been brilliant in this format, it’s just that we haven’t won the ICC tournament.

“We’ve played well and performed well as a team. Of course, there are little holes we need to fill and make sure they’re looked after. That will be the biggest challenge we’ll have as a team,” Rohit Sharma said in a pre-series press conference.

“There are holes in every team but you try and maximise what you have. I’m not going to say that we’re going to follow a certain team’s template. We have to create our own template, see what’s best and right for tour team.”

We strictly want to assign roles that we want them to do: Rohit Sharma

Another aspect Rohit Sharma is focused on is to provide backing and role clarity to the players. The 5-time IPL winning skipper believes players need to be given a longer rope in T20 cricket for them to succeed in their assigned roles because of the fickle nature of the shortest format.

“It’s important because when you compare it with Syed Mushtaq Ali or IPL, they’ve played differently in their franchise teams or Syed Mushtaq Ali. And when they come here they play a different tole.

“We strictly want to assign roles that we want them to do because at the end of the day what they do here matters. It can take a while or it can happen in a few games as well. To give them that long rope or confidence is important to perform their role to perfection.

“We’re starting afresh after the World Cup and we’ve set some ideas and thoughts for this series now. Let’s see how that pans out and we’ll take it from there,” the 34-year-old added.

The three T20Is against New Zealand will be played in Jaipur (November 17), Ranchi (November 19) and Kolkata (November 21), followed by Tests in Kanpur (November 25-29) and Mumbai (December 3-7).

India’s squad for New Zealand T20Is:

Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul (vc), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, R Ashwin, Axar Patel, Avesh Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Harshal Patel, Mohd. Siraj

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