Two-time World Cup-winning legendary West Indian captain Clive Lloyd is currently in West Bengal as a chief guest at the 75th foundation day ceremony of the Satgachia High School.
Satgachia: Legendary West Indies captain Clive Llyod advocated the inclusion of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in the Indian team for the T20 World Cup 2024. The duo, who returned to the Indian T20I side after more than a year against Afghanistan, has been making all the headlines recently over their availability for the mega showpiece to be held in USA and West Indies. Llyod stated that it is not ideal to fill the squad with just youngsters and the senior duo’s experience will be indispensable.
There is a raging debate on whether the duo should play or make way for youngsters considering India’s ICC trophy drought. The latest setback was the final loss to Australia in the ODI World Cup in November last year. While Rohit played the first T20I against Afghanistan, Kohli missed out due to personal reasons.
“You want to pick your best team, you can’t just fill the team with youthful players. You need experience,” said Lloyd, who led West Indies to 1975 and 1979 World Cup titles. Lloyd is currently in West Indies as a chief guest at the 75th foundation day ceremony of the Satgachia High School, about three hours from Kolkata.
The 79-year-old hailed both Rohit and Kohli as a good captain and one of the best players respectively. “Kohli is still one of the best players around. Rohit is quite good as captain. So you pick your best team. You will have some young players too, because you have so many cricketers here, and they are pushing the older players…,
“…and that’s how it should be. But I’m sure that you will have a very formidable side,” he added. Asked who among the Indian youngsters impressed him the most, Llyod was pretty straightforward in his answer.
“I liked this fellow Gill, he looks a good cricketer, and (Shreyas) Iyer,” he said. “India have a lot of good cricketers at the moment, I must say. And I think what I like about it is they have a much more balanced side,” he added.
The legendary West Indian, however, is of the view that the Indians are playing too much cricket that may make the sport itself ‘stale’. “Yes, I think they’re a very good side, and they will do well for quite a while if they continue in this manner.”
“But my problem is that they might be playing too much cricket, and then, you know, you can get stale,” he said, voicing a general concern in the cricket community about tight international schedules,” he said. India play Afghanistan in the second T20I on Sunday.