Rohit Sharma Explains MS Dhoni’s Absence for T20s as Necessary

Ahead of the three T20 matches against the visiting West Indies, the first of which takes place at the Eden Gardens ground in Kolkata tomorrow evening at 7pm IST, Rohit Sharma who will be donning the skipper’s cap for this series has explained the necessity of the selectors not including veteran batsmen, star wicket keeper, and former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the side. He said that Dhoni was being rested for the series, as well as for the upcoming tour of Australia to both give him a chance to focus on the one-day international (ODI) World Cup that will take place next year, as well as to try out the up and coming talent of a new generation of players who have shown much promise but needed to be tested under real international match conditions.

Speaking about the need to rest Dhoni, Sharma said, “Dhoni has been such a massive player for us, over the years. His experience in the middle will be missed but again [Rishabh Pant] and [Dinesh Karthik] have great opportunity to come and perform and see what they are capable of as well. His experience will obviously be missed. It gives an opportunity to other guys to express themselves. All these guys, who are part of this team, have done well for their respective state teams. We cannot go to the World Cup with limited resources, we need to have options. This gives you a great platform to try and test all these guys.”