It seems that Indian selectors have decided to build a new T20I team with Hardik Pandya as the skipper of the side as star players like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul have not played for Team India in T20I ever since the team’s lackluster show at T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia.
India head coach Rahul Dravid has dropped hints that Pandya would lead the T20I side in the upcoming three-match series at home against New Zealand, which means that regular captain Rohit Sharma will not be included in the side for this series too. But Dravid is treading cautiously and he is yet to make any announcement regarding the elevation of Pandya as the regular captain for T20Is.
Dravid also preferred not to comment on the introduction of split captaincy in Indian cricket and said that this will be decided by the selectors.
"Not that I am aware of (India adopting split captaincy). That’s a question you need to ask the selectors but as of now, I don’t think so," Dravid said at the pre-match press conference ahead of the 3rd ODI between India and New Zealand.
For his part, Rohit Sharma has repeatedly maintained that he wants to play in T20Is. Dravid, however, said that Rohit and Kohli were not picked for T20I after the World Cup as the team management wants to manage the workload of these players and keep them fit for 50-over ODI World Cup which is scheduled to be held in India in October.
"There are certain priorities we need to give to certain white-ball tournaments," Dravid said. "So the priority after last year's T20 World Cup has been these six games and Virat has played all these six games and he will get a bit of a break along with Rohit," Dravid added, referring to the recent ODIs against Sri Lanka and New Zealand.
It is to be noted that India is not scheduled to play many T20Is in 2023 after the New Zealand series. The management is currently focused on two big multi-nation tournaments - Asia Cup and World Cup played in the 50-over format.
Dravid's recent comments however contradict the statements which he had made during the ODI series against Sri Lanka. At that time, Dravid had noted that India is looking to groom a new side ahead of next year's T20I World Cup in West Indies.
"For us, obviously, from the last semi-final (in the T20 World Cup) that we played against England, only 3-4 boys are playing in the XI (against Sri Lanka). We are slightly in a different stage of looking at the next cycle of T20, so ours is a slightly younger team and for us to play against the quality of Sri Lanka is a fantastic experience. The good thing is that a lot of focus is on the ODI World Cup and World Test Championship, so the T20s give us the opportunity to try out these guys," he had said.
