With the next T20 World Cup two years away, many senior players in the Indian team are expected to be eased out of the shortest format of the game. Ahead of the series against New Zealand starting today, former India head coach Ravi Shastri backed the idea of building a young team for the showpiece event in the USA and West Indies. “Identify youngsters who are T20 specialists and can play fearless cricket without any baggage. Make this Indian team a terrific fielding side,” said Shastri at a media interaction organised by Amazon Prime Video, which will broadcast the series in India.

‘Too much cricket’

Shastri, 60, also agreed with the idea of having a different T20I captain in order to manage the workload. “The volume of cricket is too much at the moment. If Rohit [Sharma] is already leading in ODIs and Test matches, there’s no harm in identifying a new T20 captain. If his name is Hardik Pandya, so be it,” he added.