The Indian cricket team is currently gearing up for the T20I series against Afghanistan. It is the last T20I series for the Rohit Sharma-led side before the 2024 T20 World Cup in West Indies and USA. The mega event will be held in June. Keeping that in mind, the series against Afghanistan and IPL 2024 hold extra significance for the side which is eyeing its first ICC title since 2013. Seniors Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have been named in the squad. It will be their first T20I assignment since the 2022 T20 World Cup.
Left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh is also part of the squad. He has been an integral part of India’s T20I plan in the last one year. He was part of India’s T20I team against South Africa. Recently, he played a Ranji Trophy match for Punjab against Karnataka.
An instagram story of the pacer, which has a video with Punjab teammate Mandeep Singh, has gone viral. The caption of the post read: “Orry da praaa: Chorrryyy”. Orry is a popular social media influencer. Arshdeep even tagged Orry in his post.
Orry reshared the post saying on his Instagram story: “Am so confusion rn. Like this is major”.
The selectors have clearly gone for the status quo rather than addressing the elephant in the room by picking Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli for their first T20 series in 14 months. Will it have a bearing on India’s chances in another T20 World Cup? Only time can tell.
Having endured a heartbreak in the previous two editions of the T20 World Cup, the two greats of the game can’t be faulted for wanting a final shot at glory in the format. But the same can’t be said about the selectors, who picked a fresh bunch of players to take the team forward since the crushing semifinal loss to England in November 2022.
Now that Rohit and Kohli have been picked for the home series against Afghanistan beginning on January 11, it is a given that the famed duo will be a part of India’s squad for the ICC showpiece in the US and Caribbean in June.
It also means that India, who have been guilty of playing conservative cricket at the top of the order, are also back to square one as far as their planning for the T20 mega event is concerned.
The two superstars played a massive role in taking India to the ODI World Cup final but can they step up to the demands of the shortest format where one needs to go after the bowlers from ball one? Rohit, who did not score tons of runs in the recently held ODI showpiece but yet managed to make a compelling impact with his high risk game, will most likely carry on in the same vein when the Afghanistan series begins in Mohali.
India’s Squad for 3 T20Is against Afghanistan: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar
With PTI inputs
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