Rohit Sharma non-committal on India's T20 World Cup plan as KL Rahul stares at drop

In the finale of the India-England T20 series, the hosts proved to be too good for the visitors as India defeated England by 36 runs and clinched the series 3-2 at the Narendra Modi cricket stadium. For the past two years, team India has fostered an aura of invincibility has won six series in a row including the T20 series against England. At the same time, the England team has not been able to win any bilateral T20 series on Indian soil for the past 9 years. 

Before the start of the final of the India-England T20 match, the hosts made a tactical change. Team India replaced KL Rahul with T20 specialist bowler T Natarajan. The inclusion of Natarajan gave skipper Virat Kohli a sixth bowling option. KL Rahul's performance in India vs England T20 series has been below par. In the first four matches, Rahul returned with two ducks and two low scores of 1 and 14, respectively. 

As a result, Rahul was dropped from the playing XI and captain Virat Kohli promoted himself up the order along with opener and vice-captain Rohit Sharma. 

Virat Kohli during the toss had revealed the reason for KL Rahul's exclusion from the team. Kohli had said that the team management wanted to bring good balance with ball and bat. 'And Suryakumar Yadav is that X factor player in our team and therefore KL Rahul misses out,' Kohli said.

The Indian team management and skipper Virat Kohli have turned their thoughts towards having the best playing XI for the upcoming T20 World Cup in India. And KL Rahul's exclusion from the playing XI hints that the right-handed opener might have to warm the bench during T20 WC. 

However, India's limited-over Vice-Captain Rohit Sharma refuted this. Rohit Sharma during the post-match presentation said, "It's still a long time for the World Cup. Early days to talk about what's the batting line-up will be looking like. We just have to analyse and think about what suits the team most. Today, it was a tactical move, we wanted to play an extra bowler and we wanted to leave one batsman out. Unfortunately, it was Kl (KL Rahul) which was very tough. We know that he has been one of our key players in the limited-overs format, especially in this format."

'Best possible XI will be judged after IPL and T20 matches'

"Looking at the current form I think the team management decided to go with the best XI. But having said that it doesn't send any signal that KL will not be considered or anything like that. This was just for one particular game. Things might change as we get closer to the World Cup. We do understand his ability, we do understand his contribution at the top of what he has done for us. So I am not gonna rule out anything neither am gonna say that this is the preferred batting line-up for the World Cup," added Rohit.

Rohit also said that with the upcoming IPL and a few T20s to be played before the World Cup so the best possible XI will be judged after that.              

(Image credit: PTI/AP)