Indian team is all set to take on New Zealand in a 3-match T20I series with the first T20I on Wednesday.
With just eleven months left for the next T20 World Cup in Australia, the new set skipper Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid have a resurrection job at their hands.
“I think the template is a very important one. We just need to set the template right, and we have got some time to do that. Of course, there are some holes that we need to fill up and make sure that they are looked after. That will be the biggest challenge as the team to do that. I’m not saying we should follow certain team’s template. We just have to follow and create our own template, which is best and right for our team,” said Sharma.
Rohit also acknowledged the issue of consistency in role clarity, something which India had performed poorly at the T20 World Cup was happening.
Team need to be sorted about who opens and who will take the job in the middle-order.
“It’s important because when you compare it to Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy or the IPL, where our Indian boys play, they play differently in their franchise, Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and the Indian team. We strictly want to assign the role that we want them to do here because at the end of the day, what they do here matters.”
Squads
India: Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper), Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Avesh Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Harshal Patel and Mohammad Siraj.
New Zealand: Tim Southee (captain), Todd Astle, Trent Boult, Mark Chapman, Lockie Ferguson, Martin Guptill, Kyle Jamieson, Adam Milne, Daryl Mitchell, Jimmy Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Tim Seifert and Ish Sodhi.
