MS Dhoni’s absence will give Rishabh Pant opportunity to express himself, says Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma, India’s stand-in captain for the T20Is against the West Indies said that the absence of Mahendra Singh Dhoni behind the stumps would provide an opportunity to the young Rishabh Pant to express himself.

After completing series wins over the Windies in the Tests and ODIs, India would look to emulate that same result when they face the Caribbean side in the three-match T20I series starting at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Sunday.

“Dhoni has been such a massive player for us, over the years. His experience in the middle will be missed but again Rishabh (Pant) and Dinesh (Karthik) have great opportunity to come and perform and show what they are capable of as well. It gives them an opportunity to express themselves,” said Rohit, as quoted by The Indian Express on the eve of the T20I series opener.

“We cannot go into the World Cup with limited resources. We need to have options. This gives you a great platform to try and test all these guys. It’s very important because the amount of cricket we play, at the same time we got to see what our bench strength is. The players we are talking of are possible replacements to come and fill in. We have to see the guys who are knocking the door and what they bring to the table. Not just the 15 players we got to see what is outside the 15 players we have. There are a lot of new faces in the team,” he added.

For quite some time now, Pant has been dubbed as being a successor to Dhoni behind the stumps. The youngster impressed with teh willow in his maiden Test series in England and followed it up with superb shows at home against the West Indies–which has, in a way, cemented his spot for the national side in the whites.

But he had a below par ODI debut against the Windies in the recently concluded series and Pant would eagerly want to put it all behind him and start afresh when he dons he wicket-keeping gloves come Sunday.

The uncapped duo of Shahbaz Nadeem and Krunal Pandya have been included in India’s squad for the series. Nadeem, had starred with the ball in the Vijay Hazare Trophy with figures of 8/10.

Said Rohit, “Shahbaz Nadeem has come in the team for the first time, Krunal (Pandya) was part of the team but didn’t play any games. These are the few names who have come and we got to see them what they have in their armoury for us to make the best possible squad in the World Cup.”

The Mumbai batsman further stated that he enjoyed the responsibility of leading the side, saying, “It has helped me overall. I have enjoyed captaincy whenever I have got an opportunity and it does bring in a sense of responsibility when you lead the side you always want to lead from the front. I do understand that more so I am a player first, then a captain. My job as a player of the squad is to go out there and do well for the team. Captaincy is something I have enjoyed for the last few years. I am still a stand-in captain and of course whenever I have led IPL team, I have enjoyed my time. It has made me understand my game a lot better and made me understand my teammates better.”

But the West Indies are a completely different side when it came to the shortest version of the game and Rohit is well aware of that.

“They are one of the strongest sides in the world when it comes to T20s. We have seen that in the past. The way they approach this format in particular… We cannot forget all that as a team. They have more experience. It’s a format they enjoy the most and they have had a lot of success as well. They will be a strong opposition without a doubt.

“It’s not going to be easy for us just to go there and win. We have to play our best cricket to beat them. The focus will be on our team rather than what they do as a team. We do understand what they bring to the table,” he added.