5 reasons why India should have a specialist T20I side

Hardik Pandya MS Dhoni — The likes of Hardik Pandya got their first shot in the shortest form of the game

While more and more countries are giving uncapped youngsters a chance and building a specialist T20I outfit, India have been strangely conservative in their selection process and not built a different team for the shortest format of the game.

This is disappointing because not too many youngsters who have been IPL stars have managed to break into the first team to play regular international cricket. But the time seems to be right to try them out because they might pay rich dividends in the long run.

Here are five reasons why India should have a specialist T20I side.

#1 Investing in youth

Investing in youth is a tried and tested formula when it comes to T20 cricket. Like most countries have a relatively young T20I side, India can boast of a more or less similar outfit that competes in ODIs.

The average age of most of the Indian stars by the 2019 World Cup will be above 30. The likes of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin will be above 30 while Dhoni will be close to 38.

Though there have been some notable exceptions, it is not a mistake to state that T20I is a format where the youngsters rule the roost because of the fast nature of the game. Keeping the future in mind, India should, therefore, give more youngsters a chance to start building an effective T20I outfit.