India post the Rohit Sharma-Virat Kohli era in T20s

Virat Kohli announced his retirement from T20s after winning the world cup on 29th June 2024. After a short while, Rohit Sharma followed suit and Ravindra Jadeja too bade goodbye to the format. With Gautam Gambhir all set to become the next coach, his vision as it appears now, is to have specialists and field different teams across formats.

Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sanju Samson who did not play even a single game in the world cup are all set to get a long run in the format considering their prowess. With the cricket board deciding to send a bunch of youngsters to Zimbabwe, the focus will be on the 2026 T20 World cup scheduled to be held in India and Sri Lanka. Jaiswal and Abhishek Sharma if he succeeds, will definitely form a dangerous opening combination for a multitude of reasons - both are left handers, clean strikers and attack right from the start. The combination resembles Travis Head and David Warner. That would mean dropping Shubman Gill from the playing X1 though.

After such a cracking set of openers, some sanity would be required at No 3 and Ruturaj Gaikwad should excel considering his mindset, calm demeanor and ability to rotate strike. He may be allotted the leadership role too unless Hardik Pandya becomes a regular in the side. Sanju Samson should bat at No 4 though his preferred slot would be at the fall of the first wicket and also would be the first choice wicket keeper in the format. Rinku Singh must follow to complete the top order set of batters. Rajat Patidar, Tilak Verma and Sai Sudarshan should consider themselves as the first choice back ups/replacements. Rishabh Pant/Dhruv Jurel/Jitesh Sharma would most likely fill in for the wicket keeper-batsman's role if the need arises.

Axar Patel and Hardik Pandya would fill in the role of all rounders with Washington Sundar, Shardul Thakur and Shivam Dube competing for the same slots. Choosing bowlers would be slightly more difficult considering Jasprit Bumrah is irreplaceable. Arshdeep Singh must find himself in, so would Kuldeep Yadav. With Ravi Bishnoi showing his mettle, Kuldeep may be rested as required with Yuzvendra Chahal also available. With tearaway fast bowlers like Mayank Yadav and Harshit Rana part of the fast bowling contracts, the selectors would want to try out various combinations before concluding.

Mohammed Shami once he recovers from his injury may have a look at the format and if he expresses his willingness to play, the selectors would no doubt want him to have a crack at the format again. Pacers like Akash Deep, Yash Dayal, V Vysakh, V Kaveerappa and Umran Malik also are being taken care of by the board which is a good sign. If the likes of Surya Kumar Yadav are picked or even considered for the leadership role, one of the top five would have to wait for his turn longer. But the T20 format looks in safe hands for the next few years and some exposure in the international arena would prove who will last longer among those under consideration.