What Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli's absence from T20I side means for India and World Cup preparation

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli will be missing the white-ball leg of the South Africa tour next month. Their absence from ODIs is not seen as a big deal but missing T20Is a few months ahead of the 2024 T20 World Cup has sent a mixed signal. The T20 World Cup in West Indies and USA will take place in June 2024 and there’s a little over six months left for the mega event. BCCI said that Rohit and Kohli have been given a break and hence will be missing the three T20Is and the same number of ODIs in South Africa “Mr Rohit Sharma and Mr Virat Kohli had requested the Board for a break from the white-ball leg of the tour,” BCCI said. While BCCI hasn’t said anything more than this, it has been reported that Rohit could also be handed over the captaincy for the T20 World Cup . Rohit has not played in T20Is for over a year since the 2022 T20 World Cup where India lost to England in the semi-final. Since then Hardik Pandya has captained India, but as per new agency PTI, BCCI wants Rohit to lead India again. Kohli has also not played T20Is since last year but with most runs (4008) in the format on the international stage, it’s also difficult to envisage that he will not be picked for the shortest format once he makes himself available. Remember he was also the highest run-getter in the 2022 T20 World Cup with 296 runs and scored 639 runs in IPL 2023 with two centuries. There’s however a small matter of India playing only three T20Is in 2024 before the World Cup. India will be up against Afghanistan in January in three T20Is following which they play a five-match Test series against England at home. Then there will be the IPL 2024 and T20 World Cup. So if Rohit and Kohli return to T20Is against Afghanistan, the team management will only have three matches to sort out the combinations. The majority of the team selection it seems will be taken on the basis of IPL 2024 and while Rohit and Kohli are veterans of the game and proven quantity in T20Is, the format has shown that the past has little to no bearing on the future. The ideal thing for India would have been to play more than three T20Is in 2024 before the World Cup or Rohit and Kohli taking part in T20Is against South Africa to get a minimum of six T20Is before the World Cup, but that is not going to happen. Picking a team on the basis of IPL 2024 and guaranteeing spots for any player is a strategy fraught with risk. India’s T20I squad: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Rinku Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan (wk), Jitesh Sharma (wk), Ravindra Jadeja (vice-capt), Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Deepak Chahar India’s ODI squad: Ruturaj Gaikwad, B Sai Sudharsan, Tilak Varma, Rajat Patidar, Rinku Singh, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (capt & wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mukesh Kumar, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Deepak Chahar