ICC World Cup 2023: End of the road for Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma in T20s?

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After the 50-over World Cup loss to Australia by 6 wickets in Ahmedabad on Sunday night, the Indian selectors may or may not be contemplating to keep star campaigners Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma away from the T20 team that will be take part in the T20 World Cup in the West Indies and USA next year in June, but it is easier said than done. Keeping in mind the public sentiment, a young brigade should be empowered to play the T20s from here on.

It appears clear that a World Cup win could have probably given them a green signal to play the shortest version of the game, but the loss to the Aussies should paint a different picture of going ahead with a young T20 team. But the story here is a little complicated. The question is who can throw Virat and Rohit out easily?

In Rohit's place, Hardik Pandya should be officially announced as the T20 captain of the team if not a full-fledged white ball captain. But who would bell the cat?

Although, Rohit is still the official captain of the T20 side and Kohli is still keen to play T20, but it is time that the board members and selectors have a word with these two stalwarts and take a call on the issue. It is understood that Indian coach Rahul Dravid, who himself isn't that keen to continue even though his presence for another two years could benefit the team immensely, would also present his point of view in this like he did before the 2007 T20 World Cup that saw a few seniors missing out on the tournament and MS Dhoni leading a young side.

Clearly, BCCI doesn't want a repeat of the Virat Kohli ODI captain snub saga .which rocked Indian cricket. Incidentally, it was again Dravid who had convinced both Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly during his tenure as Indian captain to stay away from T20 cricket and that move helped India to go ahead with a young team that won the inaugural T20 World Cup. Tendulkar, however, had refuted the claims of Dravid and said that he only opted out on his own.

It is also quite clear that Kohli and Rohit's place in ODI cricket isn't in danger at this point of time. With India playing mostly Test and T20s and ODI cricket taking the back-seat, the T20 captaincy should be officially handed over to Pandya as he is expected to be fit in next two months or so.