Former India coach Ravi Shastri feels that Team India needs to start making succession plans as star players like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane near the end of their Test careers.
Shastri’s comments came after India’s World Test Championship (WTC) 2023 final loss against Australia where all the senior batters apart from Rahane failed to perform. This was India’s second consecutive defeat in a WTC final.
WTC Final: Grooming young talent the need of the hour for Team India
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With the next WTC final scheduled for 2025, calls have been made by experts and fans to introduce young talents to the Test side.
“That’s what the think-tank and the selectors will have to sit and see, draw a plan, have the vision to see how you replenish your squad. Australians are very good at doing that over the years. They see where they want to be in three years’ time. They don’t wait for suddenly five players to go away from the side,” Shastri told Star Sports.
Shastri said that India will need to take “hard calls” like Australia to maintain a competitive side.
“They’re constantly getting in youth. So there’s a combination of youth and experience all the time. The youngsters learn quickly from the senior players. So your team is healthy and strong right through. So that planning has to be done. They’re hard calls, people might not like it, but it’s the team’s interest that is paramount and that’s how you should look at it,” he said.
Australia has successfully integrated youngsters like Marnus Labuschagne, Travis Head and Cameron Green. The young players have considerably improved the strength of the side.
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India captain Rohit Sharma also reflected on the same after the WTC final loss. He said, “Any tournament you play, you start looking at what possibly you can do moving ahead. Honestly, the game just got over. We haven’t really given too much thought to what we want to do in the future. Obviously, there will be some talks around it and we’ll see whatever is required and whatever is best, whatever the brand of cricket we want to play in the next two years.”
“And who are the guys who can do that role for us? That is the question that we need to find answers to. And there are a lot of guys, there are a lot of players who are doing really well in our domestic cricket as well. It’s just about finding them and giving them that space, enough time to go forward and do the job for us. It’s all about that. The focus will be obviously on that.”
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