T20 World Cup 2024

‘Several players are in mid-30s’ – Sunil Gavaskar calls for complete overhaul of Indian team after 20-20 World Cup semi-final loss against England

Team India suffered a humiliating loss as they were completely outplayed by England in the second semi-final of the 20-20 World Cup 2022 on Thursday. The ‘Men-in-blue’ were blown away by the England batters Jos Buttler and Alex Hales who chased down the target of 169 with 10 wickets to spare. Following India’s embarrassing loss former Indian cricketer Sunil Gavaskar stated that Hardik Pandya will take over the reins as the captain of the side.

“Having won the Indian T20 League on his first assignment as the captain, they would have marked Hardik Pandya out as the next captain. Hardik Pandya will definitely take over the team in the future and there will be some retirements, you never know,” Gavaskar said in the post-match show on Star Sports.

The legendary batter further mentioned that most of the players in the current squad are in their mid-30s and he is not sure how long they will continue to play in this format.

“Players will be giving it a lot of thought. There are several players in their mid-30s who will be reconsidering their position in the Indian T20I team,” Gavaskar added.

Jos Buttler and Alex Hales gave no chance to India

Considering that the next 20-20 World Cup is two years away in 2024, some retirements might be around the corner. Rohit Sharma, Ravichandran Ashwin, Dinesh Karthik, Mohammed Shami, Virat Kohli and Bhuvneshwar Kumar are in their 30s from the current squad and might bid adieu to the shortest format in international cricket in the coming days.

Coming back to the match, India could only manage to score 168/6 in their allotted 20 overs. Hardik Pandya (63 off33) and Virat Kohli (50 off 40) scored half-centuries in India’s innings. In reply to India’s total, England’s openers launched an all-out attack on the Indian bowling and gave them no respite. They comfortably chased down the target with four overs to spare as Buttler remained unbeaten on 80 off 49 balls and Hales remained unbeaten on 86 off 47 balls.

England will now face Pakistan in the final of the 20-20 World Cup on 13^th November at Melbourne Cricket Ground.