Former Indian batter-wicketkeeper Deep Dasgupta on Tuesday expressed surprise at the selection of senior players Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma for the IND vs AFG T20I series. Dasgupta said he the selection of the two senior players pushed India ‘back to square one’.
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After days of speculation, Rohit and Virat were included in India’s squad against the Pathans keeping the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024 in mind. Given India have only three T20 internationals before the T20 World Cup in June, the team selection for the Afghanistan series was of utmost importance.
The selectors decided to include Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli after discussions with the duo. Rohit and Virat have not played in T20Is since the last 14 months, with their final appearance in T20s coming in the T20 World Cup 2022.
Deep Dasgupta told Star Sports that India had returned to the drawing board and did not understand all the changes that had been made in the past 12 months.
“I was slightly surprised because I thought the team had moved on from Rohit and Kohli. The main criticism was the lack of intent from the senior players in the last T20 World Cup. But then again, you need to keep in mind the kind of tracks you are expecting in the West Indies – are you expecting a 180 or 200-run wicket to 160-ish kind of tracks? To be very honest, I do not find any direction here for India in the last one year. If they had to go back to Kohli and Rohit…given the squads we had in the last one year, it is like going back to square one,” Dasgupta said.
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