Former Indian pacer Ashish Nehra has shared his opinion on Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli’s T20I future. After a heartbreaking defeat in the ODI World Cup final, Indian fans are now looking forward to the upcoming T20 World Cup, which is scheduled for June next year. Though more than six months are left for the ICC tournament, speculations have already started growing over the participation of Rohit and Kohli. Both veteran batters have stayed out of India’s T20I set-up since featuring in the last World Cup. In the absence of Rohit, Hardik Pandya has led the squad in all the bilateral series where young players mainly got the opportunity to demonstrate their quality.
Earlier on Wednesday, the news agency PTI reported that Rohit Sharma might draw the curtain on his T20I career in the near future. He had revealed his plans to the Indian team management even before the beginning of the ODI World Cup. The agency also claimed that the BCCI might ask Rohit to reassess his current decision if they fail to prepare a strong unit with young talents ahead of the 2024 T20 World Cup. The report, however, had no mention of Kohli and his plans for the shortest format.
According to Ashish Nehra, Rohit and Kohli will need to take the final call as age will not be considered as the main criteria at the time of selection. If they decide to continue playing T20Is, the youngsters will need to perform better to save their places in the team.
Speaking on JioCinema ahead of India’s first T20I against Australia on Thursday, Nehra highlighted Rohit Sharma’s “fearless” batting approach in recent times, branding the Indian captain as “a 36-year-old super-youngster.” The cricketer-turned-coach feels Kohli has also not gone so far from 20-over cricket. The 35-year-old featured in all games for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the last edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
“Age is no criterion. What matters is how many runs you are scoring. Losing in the ODI World Cup shouldn’t make a difference. How those two think is the most important part. Virat Kohli is scoring runs in the IPL and Rohit Sharma is performing. So any selector will be tempted and they will have discussions unless they announce their retirement, which I hope won’t be the case in the near future,” Ashish Nehra explained.
With Hardik Pandya recovering from an ankle injury, Suryakumar Yadav has been leading the young Indian unit in the ongoing T20I series against Australia on home soil. The Men in Blue have already taken a 1-0 lead in the three-match series by winning the first T20I by 2 wickets.
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