Melbourne: Rahul Dravid looked poignant when he was questioned about the future of a few senior players in the Indian team post the team’s exit from the ICC T20 World Cup 2022.
Some of the important cogs in India’s T20 set up are well into their 30s. Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Yuzvendra Chahal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and even someone like Suryakumar Yadav is 32.
India head coach Rahul Dravid offered a rather prosaic answer to that question, perhaps still recovering from that cathartic 10-wicket defeat at the hands of England at the Adelaide Oval.
Not the right time
“It's too early to talk about it right now just after a semifinal game. These guys have been terrific performers for us. Yeah, like you said, we have a couple of years to reflect on it. There's some really good quality players here, so absolutely not the right time to talk about this stuff or think about this stuff right now," Dravid said after India's exit.
"We'll have enough games, enough matches as we go on ahead, and India will try and build and prepare for the next World Cup,” Dravid added..
However, Dravid will know that he will have to address that issue sooner rather than later. He will have to take the white ball side into a period of transition.
It would be naive to assume that the aforementioned worthies will be available two years down the line, and some of them could be moving away even before the 2023 50-over World Cup scheduled to be held in India.
Transition phase
As good as Dravid knows the perils of a transition phase, it is a tough task to ensure that the period does not hurt India’s on-field performance. Remember the days when Dravid and other senior players like Sachin Tendulkar opted out of India’s 2007 T20 World Cup campaign in South Africa.
It is a different era and the players are now bound by several commitments — from advertisement contracts to brand value equations. It will be tough for them to sever ties with the sport all of a sudden.
Delicate period
Dravid will have to ensure that he handles this delicate period carefully, so that India remains a force to be reckoned with in International cricket where they will have to play two World Cups in as many years.
There are several young names Dravid can choose from. India have already tested the efficiency of Sanju Samson, Shreyas Iyer, Prithvi Shaw, Ishan Kishan, Ravi Bishnoi etc and will give chances to a couple of more players like Umran Malik and Kuldeep Sen.
Back to the future
Dravid and the selectors will have to make it sure that these young names get ample opportunity in the coming days to acclimate themselves to the task ahead, and they should not be caught off-guard at the biggest stage.
“We've seen what that's done to West Indian cricket, and I would definitely not want Indian cricket to go that way,” Dravid said while answering a question on Indian cricketers appearing in overseas T20 leagues.
But those words can be easily applied to the matter of handling the transition phase as and when it gets ushered.
Will it be a smooth process? Or will we see a few feathers getting ruffled?
