After a record breaking performance in 2019, Indian limited overs vice-captain Rohit Sharma, as per latest news, is set to take a break from international cricket, reports the Times of India. Rohit, who broke Sanath Jayasuriya’s record for the most number of runs by an opener in a calendar year across formats, will not be a part of the T20I series against Sri Lanka.
“The selectors normally don’t give rest to anyone in the T20 team, but Rohit has been on the road for quite a while now. He has informed the Board that he wants to take rest for this series,” Times of India quoted a BCCI source as saying.
India are all set to play Sri Lanka in three T20 internationals from January 5, 2020 to January 10, 2020. However Rohit is expected to be back for the T20I series against Australia, in which India cannot afford to miss out on their main batsmen.
With Rohit to take rest, the most likely candidate to replace him in the squad will be Shikhar Dhawan. Dhawan has not been in the best of form after the ODI World Cup, and this was followed by a knee injury in the Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy which kept him out of the limited overs series against West Indies. He will open the batting alongside an in-form KL Rahul, who performed well in Dhawan’s absence against West Indies.
India won both the T20I and ODI series against Sri Lanka 2-1, but the one loss in each series was also a good opener ahead of the World T20 in Australia next year.
Talking about Rohit, the run machine scored 556 runs in five Test matches, 1490 runs in 28 one-day internationals and 396 runs in 14 T20 internationals in 2019, ending the year with a tally of 2442 runs across all formats and going past Jayasuriya’s record of 2,387 runs set in 1997.
