With the growing number of franchise cricket across the world, it’s being speculated that the popularity of the ODI format will take a massive hit. The jam-packed schedule of T20 leagues nowadays is making it hard for a player to maintain the balance between national duty and league cricket.
The same thing happened with ace England all-rounder Ben Stokes who drew curtains on his ODI career, stating that he couldn’t cope with all three formats. However, he added that he would like to focus on Tests and T20s. Most recently, ace Kiwi speedster Trent Boult opted out of the New Zealand central contract in order to spend some time off from the international circuit but continue to play domestic games.
All these developments are leading to the opinion that mushrooming of T20 leagues would impact the future of ODIs. However, India skipper Rohit Sharma has dispelled the perception, saying all formats of the game are important to him.
While addressing media personnel during an event, Rohit asserted that he made a name for himself in ODIs and all the talks about the threat to the 50-over format are nothing but nonsense.
“Mera naam hi one-day cricket se bana hai. Sab bekar ki baatein hai (I made my name from one-day cricket. These talks are nonsense). People were earlier talking about Test cricket (being in danger),” Rohit told reporters on the sidelines of a promotional event here.
“For me, cricket is important, be in any format. I’d never say that ODI is getting finished or T20 is getting finished or Tests are nearing an end. I wish there was another format as well because for me, playing the game is most important. It’s an individual choice as to which format to play or not, but for me, all three formats are important,” he added.
Rohit’s next assignment will be the Asia Cup in Dubai, starting later this month. India open their campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan. The last time the two sides met was at the T20 World Cup last year when India were handed a heavy 10-wicket defeat.
“We played Pakistan last year in Dubai, where obviously the result did not go our way. But the team is playing differently now and has prepared differently, so a lot of things have changed from then. We need to assess the conditions, keep in mind the fact that we will be playing in 40-plus degrees (temperatures). We need to assess all those factors and prepare accordingly,” Rohit said.
(With PTI Inputs)
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