India’s Team Director Ravi Shastri on Monday said that while “experience cannot be bought in super market” the likes of Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Ashish Nehra will play only if they fit into the combination that the team is looking for going into ICC World T20.
Asked about the senior trio in the team, Shastri sounded positive as usual.
“They are raring to go. Every match from hereon until the World T20 will be extremely important. It gives us a chance to try different players and see what combination works best. It is about getting the right combination for the conditions you are playing in Australia. If it means senior players have to play they will play. Again if that means juniors have to play, that will be so. It’s about getting the combination right,” Shastri said.
The former India all-rounder agreed that a perfect combination is the blend of youth and experience.
“It is important to have the right mix of experience and youth. There is no shortcut to experience when it comes to the T20 format and bowling in the death overs. The scores in ODIs were 300-plus in every game. Five years ago 260 would have been enough here. As a bowler you have to have experience there to stop that hitting.”
Experience at the death invariably brought up Nehra’s name in the conversation and Shastri said:”Experience is not bought or sold in the market so when you get it, use it. He has got experience. He has played 2-3 WC if I am correct. And he has played a lot of T20 cricket. He is just coming from a domestic T20 competition at home.”