Former Team India head coach Ravi Shastri has made a couple of bold predictions regarding the Men in Blue ahead of the T20 World Cup. Shastri feels that the current batting lineup is one of the best the Men in Blue have had in the recent past.
The veteran further opined that the likes of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli may no longer feature for India in the shortest format after the T20 World Cup 2022, given the burden of the ODI World Cup next year at home.
Speaking to senior journalist Ayaz Memon, Shastri touched upon various aspects, including the fielding woes of the Indian side.
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"I've been part of the system for the last seven years as coach and now watching it from outside, this is the strongest batting line-up India has had, if you look at youth, experience, at players peaking in this format of the game," said Shastri.
He continued, "This is as good a batting line-up as India ever had in T20 cricket; especially with Hardik Pandya at No 5, Dinesh Karthik or Rishabh Pant at No 6, it makes a massive difference. One area they will have to pick up and start from the beginning is fielding."
"Those 15-20 runs you save will make all the difference because otherwise every time you go out to bat, you will have to get those extra runs. This is where other sides, Australia, England, New Zealand, South Africa, they field like crazy. Sri Lanka won the Asia Cup on their fielding," added the cricketer-turned-commentator.
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When India won the T20 World Cup in 2007, it was a young team led by MS Dhoni and Shastri expects senior players like Dinesh Karthik, Rohit and Virat to focus on other formats apart from the T20s.
"Come what may, I see India having a new team after this World Cup, much like the team which went in 2007—there was no Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly. Dhoni took the side out and won the tournament. The same thing can happen. It is not that they are not good enough, but you want them for the other two formats, there is a World Cup coming next year, so you don’t want to burden those players," stated the 60-year-old.
