“You need two coaching staff” – Saba Karim wants Team India to emulate England style of play

Former player Saba Karim feels it’s time for Team India to have a separate coaching staff for white ball and Test cricket. His comments come as senior players including Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, and head coach Rahul Dravid have been rested for the T20I and ODI series in New Zealand.

The veteran felt that different forms of cricket require different strategies and visions, which can work in favor of the Indian cricket team.

Speaking to India News, Karim said:

“You need two coaching staff. One for Test cricket and another one for white ball cricket. Other formats require different strategies, and there is a different vision. You will not find such problems in the future where Rahul has to rest and VVS has to come in.”

The former selector also discussed playing different sets of players for various formats and picking only a handful of them in red-ball and white-ball teams.

“Similarly, we can talk about the players. Several players are specialists in white-ball cricketers. Some are specialist red-ball cricketers. Some of them can play both formats.”

For those not in the know, reigning ODI and T20 World Cup champions England have different coaches for the white ball (Matthew Mott) and Test cricket (Brendan McCullum).

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“KL Rahul is a big example” – Reetinder Singh Sodhi wants India to avoid picking players based on reputation

Former Indian cricketer Reetinder Singh Sodhi took the example of KL Rahul and Mohammed Shami’s repetitive failures in World Cup tournaments and wants the selection committee to stop picking players based on reputation.

He feels that youngsters should be groomed as backup options and only deserving players must be selected in future series, especially in the World Cup.

Speaking on the same show as Karim, Sodhi said:

“We go with reputation. We have to accept it. You give him leverage if someone has played better cricket for ten years. You wait for him to come back to form. KL Rahul is a big example. When Bumrah got injured, we got into the backfoot, you had Umran Malik, Mohammed Siraj, good young bowlers, but you felt they were not ready for T20 World Cup. You got to go back to Mohammed Shami, who was not even near selection. It shows our preparation is not good.”

He continued:

“You have to rotate players and come out of reputation. You have your days, but when you pass your days, you have to accept it. This is not happening in Indian cricket.”

Meanwhile, the Hardik Pandya-led team will play their opener in Wellington on Friday (November 18). The action will then shift to Mount Maunganui (November 20) and Napier (November 22) for the last two T20Is.

India’s squad for New Zealand T20Is: Hardik Pandya (C), Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (VC and WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Harshal Patel, Mohd. Siraj, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umran Malik.