Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar shared his opinion on Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli playing in the T20 World Cup 2024. Both senior players informed the BCCI that they are available to be selected for the main event.

India reached the semi-final of the T20 World Cup 2022 under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma. Virat Kohli scored the most runs as India lost to England in the semi-final. In less than 10 months, the next T20 World Cup is almost knocking on the door.

The ICC revealed the schedule of the event on Friday, January 5 and the clash between India and Pakistan will be played in New York on December 9. As always, India and Pakistan are grouped in the same group. This time, the T20 World Cup will be a 20-team event, with teams like Nepql, Canada, Papua New Guinea and Oman qualifying for the tournament.

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Sunil Gavaskar, while talking about India’s schedule, spoke about the possibility of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli playing in the tournament. Hardik Pandya’s long-term injury could prevent him from playing the tournament. He and Suryakumar Yadav, who are battling injury problems, could miss the T20I series against Afghanistan, which is India’s last T20I series before the World Cup in June.

“Virat Kohli’s form has been outstanding over the last one and a half years. He also played brilliantly in the ODI World Cup. Therefore, there should not be any debate about his batting prowess in limited overs cricket. One huge aspect is that Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are still excellent fielders,” Gavaskar said. star sports during the announcement of the T20 World Cup schedule on Friday.

Sunil Gavaskar on Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli’s fielding skills

He further said that with both Kohli and Rohit aged between 35 and 26, fielding could be a problem for older players with the format demanding fitter players who can be agile on the field.

“Sometimes you become slow when you are 35 or 36; Your shot is not so good anymore. So there are discussions about where to stay while you prepare the field. That’s not a problem for these two because they are still excellent fielders. In addition to seniority in the locker room, they will also contribute on the field. We don’t know if Rohit will be the captain, but whatever the case may be, any captain will surely benefit from it,” Gavaskar added.

India’s T20I series against Afghanistan begins on January 11 and the selectors and management will have one last chance to identify players who could make it to the World Cup. Injuries and player workload could be another concern that the management should reflect on.

After the Afghanistan series, the Indian players will play the IPL in which all the players will look to perform at their best to board the flight to the US and the Caribbean for the World Cup in June.

India could rest the likes of Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah in the Afghanistan T20I series. With SKY and Hardik set to miss the series lightly, there is talk of Rohit Sharma returning as the Indian captain to lead the team. It will be interesting to see if Virat Kohli also makes it to the team.

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