Sunil Gavaskar believes Nidahas Trophy will give young Indian players a chance to prove themselves

Sunil Gavaskar believes Nidahas Trophy will give young Indian players a chance to prove themselves

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Written by: SportsCafe Desk

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Sunil Gavaskar has stated that the young Indian players can utilize the upcoming Nidahas Trophy to prove their worth in the absence of senior players. Gavaskar has also warned India to be alert from other two teams Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as they can put up a serious challenge in the T20 format.

India successfully ended the South Africa tour by winning the ODI and T20I series with an overall record of 8-4 across all formats. However, considering the fatigue of the long tour, the Indian selectors rested six regular players from the upcoming Nidahas Trophy. While the likes of captain Virat Kohli, former captain MS Dhoni, Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Jasprit Bumrah have all been given a break from the tournament, Rohit Sharma will take up the skipper’s role with Shikhar Dhawan acting as he deputy. And Gavaskar stated that the tournament offers a golden opportunity for the youngsters to prove their worth in the squad.

“India have decided to rest their star players after the arduous South Africa tour and this gives an opportunity to some young players to show their mettle and that they are ready for international cricket. These players have done well in the ongoing domestic limited overs games and won't be short of experience either as they play in the IPL too,” Gavaskar wrote for TOI.

“The selectors clearly have an eye not just on the 2019 ICC World Cup in England but beyond as some senior players may well want to retire from the international scene then.”

Apart from India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are the other participant teams in the tri-nation T20 tournament. In the ICC rankings, India are placed at the third position behind Pakistan and Australia while Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are at the 8th and 10th position respectively. Despite the huge gap between the two teams, Gavaskar warned India to not take their opponents lightly as both teams have enough experience in the shortest format of the game.

“They do have the Nidahas Trophy in Sri Lanka next week which should be an engrossing event. The hosts Sri Lanka have been brilliant ever since Chandika Hathurusingha has taken over as the coach and on the recent trip to Bangladesh they won all three formats but were especially devastating in the T20 series,” he said.

“Bangladesh too have upped their game especially after the Bangladesh Premier League where they not only got more T20 experience but the huge plus of their players sharing the dressing room with some of the world's best players and learning from them. They play fearlessly now and are capable of beating any team particularly in this format.

“Pakistan are still the number one team in the world in the T20 rankings because of their consistent performances and India will have to wait a few months before they can think of getting to the top side simply because they don't have enough T20 internationals to get ahead in the rankings.”

During the series between India and South Africa, the hosts struggled with the absence of the regular players who were forced to stay out from the series due to various injuries. Gavaskar admitted that fact but praised the Indian side who performed as a strong unit and delivered brilliant effort in all departments.

“India's triumphant finish in the T20 series in South Africa was justly deserved. They were by far the superior team in both the limited overs series and outplayed the Proteas in just about every game.

“True the Proteas were without their senior experienced players and the bowlers were relatively new to international cricket but the Indian batting was awesome and the bowling unit was not just restricting runs but also taking wickets. They also out-fielded the Proteas which is an even bigger achievement as the Proteas have been among the outstanding fielding teams in the world,” he added.

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