India's might have been knocked out early in the recently-concluded T20 World Cup but the team's newly-appointed T20I captain Rohit Sharma feels the Men in Blue have been brilliant in the shorter format of the game and will only go from strength to strength in the coming days. He insisted that it was important to show confidence in young players so that they could understand their roles and perform accordingly.
"India has been brilliant in T20s. We haven't won the ICC tournament but we played well as a team. Of course, there are a few holes we need to fill up. That will be the biggest challenge. We have to create our own template. Our Indian boys play in the IPL and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. They play very differently for their franchise but when they come here (India squad), we strictly want them to play specific roles. For us, to give them that long rope and confidence is important," Rohit said ahead of the T20I series against New Zealand.
#TeamIndia get into the groove for the #INDvNZ T20I series. 👌 👌
— BCCI (@BCCI) November 16, 2021
How excited are you to see them in action? 👏 👏 pic.twitter.com/Q3sNrdjnYA
A lot of prominent faces, including Virat Kohli, have been kept out of the three-match series against the Kiwis to focus on the workload management. Kohli is expected to return in the second Test match against New Zealand, scheduled to be played in December. When asked about Kohli's role in the team, Rohit said, "It's very simple. Whatever he has been doing till now, his role in this team remains the same. The roles of each player change as per match conditions and all players, including Kohli, are open to that.
"When you are batting first, the role is different compared to when you are batting second. Based on games that we are playing, roles will keep changing and everyone is open to that. I am sure when Virat comes back, it will only strengthen our team because of the experience and the kind of batsman he is, it's only going to add up to our squad, " Rohit added.
Say Hello to our T20I captain @ImRo45 & Head Coach Rahul Dravid. 👋 😊#TeamIndia #INDvNZ pic.twitter.com/feQpH0q7tC
— BCCI (@BCCI) November 16, 2021
Rahul Dravid, who will step onto the field as the Team India head coach for the first time, stressed on every player's mental and physical wellbeing and said that even though India were not looking at different teams for different formats, unrealistic expectations around a single player's availability across all formats and all games would be hard to fulfil.
"In times like these, we need to be in conversation with the players. For me the player's physical and mental health is the most important thing. I would like to ensure whenever we have them, they are fresh and fully switched on. These are challenging times for people and players, especially those who are expected to play all formats of the game. So, we might not be able to play every single player in every format in every single game and we need to accept that as reality," Dravid said.