Ravi Shastri, Zaheer Khan say Indian players do not need to play in overseas T20 leagues

Former India head coach Ravi Shastri and pace bowler Zaheer Khan have joined the conversation about the requirement for Indian players to participate in overseas T20 leagues.

Shastri, as usual, was vocal about his thoughts and said that the Indian players have enough exposure in the domestic circuit to be well-versed with the system.

“There is enough domestic cricket for all these players to get absorbed in the system and get an opportunity. Plus, you get these India A tours, you get a lot of these other tours, where at one given time you might have two Indian teams playing in the future, where the opportunity will come for the other lot to go somewhere else whilst India is in another country – to go play and see what you know they can do,” Shastri told reporters on Thursday.

The commentator also emphasized that they need to play domestic cricket as well. “So there’s no need (to play in overseas leagues), they’re absolutely fine playing IPL cricket and focusing on domestic cricket. We need them to play domestic cricket in India as well,” he added.

Interestingly, Anil Kumble had earlier said that Indian players should be allowed to play in foreign leagues as such exposure would help them.

Zaheer Khan had similar views and said that the important aspect is for players to have overseas experience and learn things from that environment. He explained that the BCCI makes that sure through shadow tours.

“I feel there are a lot of processes in place. It’s not about playing only franchise cricket, it’s about going to different countries to learn things. That is something which is important, and you’ve seen with BCCI, with their shadow tours, I think those processes are well in place,” the speedster said.

Zaheer also echoed Shastri stating that India can field multiple line-ups to compete at the international level.

“I don’t see any other reason right now for players to go and play in a particular tournament. What you have domestically right now is also a robust structure. So why depend on others? We have more than enough means for producing good players. And you look at our bench strength as well, you can virtually play three line-ups, and they will be able to compete at any level.”

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