Rohit Sharma should lead India in T20Is, not Virat Kohli: Ajit Agarkar

The coronavirus pandemic has put an end to all the cricketing action across the world. However, with the situation seemingly improving and normalcy being restored in some countries such as England, authorities are gunning to get international and domestic cricket back. The upcoming England-West Indies Test series, scheduled to commence from July 8, is all set to mark the return of international cricket.

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However, in order to make up for the lost revenues, cricket boards across the globe are exploring all the options to play a separate red-ball and white-ball team on the same season/series/day to increase profits. Keeping in mind about such a possibility, cricket experts have started naming their teams for the same. The latest to join the bandwagon is former India cricketer Ajit Agarkar, who named his 12-member squad for both Tests and T20I formats while speaking to ESPNCricinfo.

Ajit Agarkar snubs Shikhar Dhawan from both his squads, picks Virat Kohli to lead in Tests

As far as Tests are concerned, Ajit Agarkar named youngsters Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal to open the innings. The No. 3 position is occupied by Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara followed by Virat Kohli, who is also the captain of Agarkar's Test team. Agarkar picked Delhi Capitals star Ajinkya Rahane for the fifth position while Andhra batsman Hanuma Vihari occupied the No. 6 position

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For the wicketkeeper's role, Ajit Agarkar had an interesting pick as he chose Rishabh Pant over the experienced Wriddhiman Saha, who is arguably one of the best keepers in Tests at the moment. In the bowling department, Ajit Agarkar chose R Ashwin as the solitary spinner over Ravindra Jadeja. Among pacers, the 42-year-old snubbed Jasprit Bumrah and picked the pace attack of Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami. Ajit Agarkar picked Shubham Gill as the 12th man.

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Rohit Sharma to lead Ajit Agarkar's T20Is team

In T20Is, Agarkar picked Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul as the openers of the team with the former being the captain of the side. Agarkar interestingly claimed that Shikhar Dhawan cannot be playing alongside Rohit Sharma if India plays consecutive matches or T20Is because there is only one spot technically for an opener considering India's middle-order and captain.

The next two positions were accommodated by Delhi Capitals skipper Shreyas Iyer and Karnataka batsman Manish Pandey. At No. 5 and 6, Agarkar picked two all-rounders in the form of Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja respectively.

Agarkar named five bowlers in his T20I bowling attack. He named Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav as the two spinners in the team. The pace battery was formed by the ever-reliable Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvmeshwar Kumar and youngster Navdeep Saini. Moreover, Ajit Agarkar named Shardul Thakur as the 12th man. Speaking on Rohit Sharma's inclusion in T20Is, Agarkar said that he made the selections keeping in mind the T20 World Cup, the reason why he named Rohit Sharma in the white-ball squad.

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IMAGE COURTESY: ICC TWITTER