Indian cricket doesn’t need to be scared about the future with the retirement of their star players as their robust domestic structure will ensure quality replacements, says Zimbabwe legend and current Royal Challengers Bengaluru coach Andy Flower.
An Indian T20I team is currently in the tour of Zimbabwe for a five-match series that got underway on Saturday. The squad is led by young Shubman Gill and the tour is being seen as a platform for the next generation to prove their credentials.
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Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja retired from T20Is after India won the world cup last month. The hopefuls will inevitably be judged against the standards set by the star trio and Flower feels India already have ‘readymade replacements’.
“This India-Zimbabwe series is going to be really interesting,” Flower told The Times of India. “It’s a very strong side the Indian selectors have put out. All these guys have not only shown a lot of talent in the IPL but also have the attitude required to play international cricket.”
He continued, “There are readymade replacements for the guys who’ve retired, even though they are genuinely great cricketers. The strong domestic structure in India means there will always be readymade replacements. It’s certainly nothing to be scared of. India will keep producing these greats. There is always someone ready to come in. Whenever some of the great cricketers have retired, you think they won’t be and cannot be replaced. But people move on very quickly. All eyes adjust and focus on the next talent that comes along.
India picked an 18-man squad for the Zimbabwe tour with as many as five players – Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Reddy, Abhishek Sharma and Tushar Deshpande – handed maiden call-ups. Out of these five, an injured Nitish was replaced by Shivam Dube later on.
Parag, Jurel and Abhishek made their T20I debuts in the series opener in Harare on Saturday.
The likes of Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Dube will be available from the third T20I as they were with India’s T20 world cup squad.
Flower says Jaiswal and Gill will be the ones to watch out for during the tour and he’s also looking forward to how Abhishek performs.
“If I put my IPL coaching hat on, then I’ll have to keep a keen watch on the players. (Yashasvi) Jaiswal didn’t play a single match in the T20 World Cup but he is an incredible option. Shubman Gill, by his standards, had a quiet IPL but he looks a very intelligent player. He plays in a similar way to Virat Kohli,” Flower said.
“I’m looking forward to Abhishek Sharma performing. I really like the look of Dhruv Jurel. Watching him in the Test series against England, he did brilliantly. Riyan Parag has the swagger that you need in international cricket,” he added.
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