The retirement of three greats — Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja — from the shortest format has already started the transition phase in Indian cricket, feels BCCI secretary Jay Shah, who confirmed that the seniors will continue to form the core in the ODI and Test formats as India target next year’s ICC Champions Trophy in Pakistan and the third World Test Championship final.
The Champions Trophy, as a competition, was discontinued in 2017 due to the declining relevance of the tournament in the Future Tours Programme (FTP) and the emergence of the T20 World Cup as a second marquee tournament after the ODI World Cup. But it will be restored early 2025 as Pakistan readies to host the big-ticket event, despite concerns over India’s participation due to frosty relations between the two neighbours.
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A couple of days after Rohit Sharma & Co helped India end a 11-year ICC title drought, Shah was effusive in his praise for the entire bunch, especially the wealth of experience brought in by the senior players that helped India lift the T20 World Cup in Barbados. While Rohit led the batting charts for India besides leading the squad, Kohli emerged as the Player of the Match in the final with his 59-ball 76.
“We won all games (ODI World Cup) except the final in 2023 as Australia played better. This time we worked even harder and played better to win the title. If you look at other teams, experience counts. From Rohit to Virat, all excelled. Experience makes a lot of difference, in World Cups you can’t experiment much also,” Shah said.
“A good player knows when to say goodbye to the game, we saw that yesterday. You look at Rohit’s strike rate, it is better than a lot of young players,” he added.
Shah also assured the presence of the trio as India targets the ICC Champions Trophy, which it lost to arch-rivals Pakistan when the tournament was last held in 2017. This means that the senior players, fitness permitting, are likely to be available for the nine ODI matches that India will play before the Champions Trophy scheduled for February-March 2025 in Pakistan.
India’s ODI assignments before that include three games each against Sri Lanka (away), New Zealand (home) and England (home).
“The way this team is progressing, our target is to win the World Test Championship final and Champions Trophy. There will be a similar squad playing there. The seniors will be there,” he said while conceding that the transition period in Indian cricket has already begun after Rohit, Virat and Jadeja’s announcements.
With only a handful of players from the T20 World Cup squad set to fly out to Zimbabwe for the brief T20I series, Shah said the country possesses the biggest bench strength and can field three different teams if the need arises.
India, who had lost big finals in the past decade, finally ended their title drought after losing two ICC finals – World Test Championship and ODI World Cup final – over the last 12 months and Shah hoped the winning run would continue.
“I would want India to win all the titles. We have the biggest bench strength, only three players from this team are going to Zimbabwe. We can field three teams if the need arises,” he said.
On Hardik’s all-round performance in the T20 World Cup and chances of him taking over the captaincy from Rohit, Shah said, “Captaincy will be decided by the selectors and we will announce it after discussing with them. You asked about Hardik, there were a lot of questions over his form but the selectors showed faith in him and he proved himself.”
BCCI to announce head coach before Sri Lanka tour
Jay Shah revealed that T20 World Cup-winning head coach Rahul Dravid wanted to quit the position due to family commitments, and confirmed that the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) has already interviewed two candidates for the coveted post and that the new coach will begin his stint from the Sri Lanka series.
“He (Dravid) told me that due to family commitments he wants to quit and we respect his decision. I didn’t force him to extend,” Shah said while hailing Dravid’s contribution to Indian cricket first as a cricketer, then as administrator and coach.
“Rahul bhai has served Indian cricket for the past five and half years. He was director of the National Cricket Academy for three years and then for the past two and half years, he served as head coach of Team India,” said Shah.
Explaining the reason behind extending Dravid’s continuation at the post after the final loss in 2023 ODI World Cup, Shah said, “Dravid’s role is as important as Rohit Sharma in this T20 World Cup title triumph. He is a man, who took the team to the 2023 ODI World Cup final and didn’t wanted to leave because he wanted to finish the job.”
Shah further said that he will announce the new coach shortlisted among the two interviewed candidates once he returns to Mumbai. “CAC has interviewed and shortlisted two names and after reaching Mumbai whatever they have decided we will go by that. VVS Laxman is going to Zimbabwe but a new coach will join from the Sri Lanka series,” he informed.
Former India opener Gautam Gambhir has been tipped as a front-runner to take over from Dravid even though chances of former women’s team head coach WV Raman couldn’t be entirely ruled out.
