Former India wicketkeeper-batter Deep Dasgupta has urged the team management to build a strong team for the future that can dominate the next two World Test Championship (WTC) cycles, rather than focus on short-term fixes.
“I think this is something that the team should do more often: have a proper camp or a period to prepare before a Test match.”
Speaking to Sports Now, Dasgupta also urged the BCCI to organise preparatory camps, saying they would allow players and coaches to spend more time together before the start of a series.
When asked whether India can qualify for the current WTC final, Dasgupta suggested that the team management should prioritise long-term goals rather than making changes after every series. “In the last two or three years, Virat has retired, Rohit has retired, Ashwin has retired, Ajinkya and Pujara are gone. Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav are also gone.
So the main nucleus of the team that you spoke about for the last 10 years is gone,” he added.
“I would want to use this cycle to create a team which would dominate in the next two cycles, rather than looking at it in the short term, series to series,” said Dasgupta. “The next generation of players, like I said, are more white-ball-cricket oriented than red-ball. So you’ve got to give them a little bit of time to settle down into Test match cricket as compared to white-ball ODIs or T20s Keeping that in mind, yes, we need to work harder, but I like the direction,” said Dasgupta.
Dasgupta added that the departure of big names such as Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma from the Test team has left several voids that need to be filled before the next cycle.
