Cricket News: It's time for India's veterans to transition out of the White Ball format

The talk has primarily revolved around phasing out elder players while giving India's hungry youngsters a chance to stake their place in the team. 

Yet while all the talk has been about bringing in younger players for ODIs and T20Is, there's been little talk about putting them out to pasture altogether. 

Instead, the simple suggestion is to limit their involvement to Test cricket only. But is that a viable suggestion? 

There's an easy argument to be made that it is – and that India have precedence for doing so in the recent past. 

In the mid-2000s, after India's shock triumph at the World T20 in 2007, there was a growing acceptance that the way the sport would be played would change. 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">More bad news for India after yesterday’s loss against Bangladesh 👇<a href="https://t.co/MVHYjwUPbq">https://t.co/MVHYjwUPbq</a></p>&mdash; ICC (@ICC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ICC/status/1599773251567230977?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 5, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

And so India, under MS Dhoni, boldly decided to move away from the veterans and bring in young talent in the white-ball set-ups. 

Of the 'Fab four' that included Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, and VVS Laxman, only Tendulkar continued to be a part of India's white-ball set-up – and that too only in ODIs. 

Dravid and Laxman remained players India would call upon for Test matches only. In contrast, Ganguly would retire soon after it became clear that the winds of change were blowing in Indian cricket. 

Keeping that in mind, why is it so hard to assume something similar could be done now for players like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and to an extent, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja? 

There's no doubting the quality of each man, and there's also little doubt of their legacy. But is there a need for all four of them to be all-format players? 

The simple answer is no, since not only does it not benefit the players but it also works to the team's detriment. 

These players are ageing and, to various degrees, have dealt with injuries and many miles on their bodies. 

As players, their first instinct would always be to play, which makes it imperative that the board steps in and chooses to take that decision away from them and into the hands of the administrators. 

The BCCI backed Dhoni's call to phase out senior players, and it worked a treat for India in white ball cricket. The same is needed now. 

It also helps to look at the more successful teams in world cricket right now, and they don't have too many players who overlap formats. 

This is especially true in England, which have not only different sets of players but also entirely different coaching staffs. And it helps to let both players and coaches specialise. 

As things stand, India will remain behind the eight ball if they stick with their current approach and back the elder statesmen. The time for change is now.