Shastri wants to see more youngsters playing for India in the future

Former India captain Ravi Shastri has advised current skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni to stop relying too much on veteran players and start allowing youngsters to play more often in order to increase their on-field experience.

Shastri believes Dhoni should have also picked more younger talents in his World Twenty20 squad.

“I would have given opportunity to young players. Ashok Dinda, Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma. We have all forgotten Ishant but he still has a big role to play in Indian cricket. If you look at batting, Ambati Rayudu, Ajinkya Rahane, Murali Vijay are young guys who have shown promise,” Shastri said.

Speaking about veteran pace bowler Zaheer Khan, Shastri stated that India must only use him in Test cricket and ODIs since he will prove to be of more use.

“It’s time to get a better mix of youth and experience for the next time. You need youth, you need some energy in the field. If you look at Zaheer Khan, he needs to be rested. You need him in Tests and ODIs. Why can’t you just rest him for Twenty20, give a chance to the young bowler,” he added.

With the ongoing talk about whether Dhoni is still fit to be India’s captain or not, Shastri announced that he was in favour of keeping Dhoni as captain for now.

“Let him carry on as the captain. He did a good job for the last five years. For a defeat, the entire team has to take the responsibility including the captain and the coach. They know what went wrong. There is no need to panic as to what happened now,” Shastri said.

When asked why India had failed to get into the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Twenty20 semi-finals ever since winning the inaugural edition of the tournament in 2007, Shastri said: “Look at the side that went for the World Cup, the format was new to everyone and as a result, the seniors decided to take the backseat. They were not interested in playing T20. The end result was a young side, that was fit, eager, hungry and an excellent fielding side. These are must in T20. During that time, Rohit Sharma, Robin Uthappa and others were all new and they did extremely well. This defeat has given you enough on the table to think for the future.”