Former Indian cricketer and commentator Aakash Chopra believes that the culture in T20s needs to change after India’s 10-wicket defeat against England in the semifinals of the World Cup. Chopra shares how the team needs to trust on young players who are more naturally aggressive than others as this has to be the cultural change for the team after disappointing results in consecutive World Cups.
The Indian cricket team will be immediately in action after the completion of the World Cup as they will start their New Zealand trip with three T20Is followed by as many ODIs. The senior players such as Virat Kohli, captain Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul have been rested whereas Hardik Pandya has been given captaincy with Rishabh Pant being the vice-captain.
On his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra shared how a new approach is needed for this team and it will come when new players will be introduced. He shared how the template won’t change with the same players and hence change of personnel is needed in the T20 format. “When the World Cup ends, you say you will go with a clean slate with new players. You have to do something different, you have to change the players if you want to change the template. If you continue with the same players, the template will not change,” he suggested.
However he is unsure whether this squad that has gone to New Zealand is a temporary squad as some of the players are rested after a big tournament or is it a step in the right direction for the team. “The big players are not traveling. A new 16-member squad has reached there, with Hardik Pandya as the captain. New Zealand have played their entire team, they have not rested anyone, but we have rested quite a few players and started with a new team. Is that the start of a new era or a stop-gap arrangement?”
However for now Chopra hopes that the team does well in New Zealand in the T20 series followed by the all important ODIs. But he would want to see the bunch of youngsters more often than not.
Lastly speaking about Hardik Pandya the captain, Chopra was very confused as he highlighted how this has been the pattern for the Indian team and how the big players often return right before the big tournaments like Asia Cup and World Cup. “Hardik Pandya has been made the captain. A lot of people believe that he could be our future T20 captain but we really don’t know what the selectors and the team management are thinking because we have come to know in the last one year that the senior players come back in the main tournaments like Asia Cup and World Cup,” Chopra concluded.
