Suresh Raina, Parvez Rasool can use T20 series to seal Team India spot: Virat Kohli

Mumbai: Virat Kohli believes that the three-match T20I series against England is a perfect opportunity for some of the fringe players to become a regular in the Indian cricket team squad.

Kohli, who was confirmed as the Team India captain across all three formats of the game, believes that India can use the three T20Is against England to groom some of the future stars.

“If you see the squad, we’ve got quite a few youngsters now, who we want to groom with the senior players in the team,” said Kohli on the eve of India’s first T20I against England in Kanpur.

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The India skipper said that the players can use these matches as a spring board to get into the ODI and Test squads as well.

“Eventually, the idea is to groom them enough to give them the confidence to go from hereon and maybe push them to the ODIs and from thereon have a gradual progress graph for them, and get them to the highest level, which is Test cricket,” said Kohli.

India have rested ace spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja for the T20I series, keeping in mind the upcoming Test matches against Bangladesh and Australia, next month.

Kohli singled out fringe spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Parvez Rasool, and said that the duo can go on to seal their spots as T20 specialists.

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“Chahal, obviously everyone has seen his performances. Even Rasool played under me, so I’ve seen the way he bowls,” said Kohli. “He’s pretty confident, and can bowl with the new ball against the most attacking guys in the world, so these are two guys who are pretty smart about their bowling.

“They know how to create pressure, and good dot balls can obviously get you wickets. I’m pretty confident of both of them. This is probably a breakthrough series for both of them.”

Kohli also believes that senior player, Suresh Raina, who has been out of the squad since the ICC world T20 in March last year, can use the tournament to make a comeback.

Read: Suresh Raina set to surpass run-machine Virat Kohli

“I won’t say he hasn’t played for a while, because he played in the T20 World Cup, so that’s not too many series in between,” Kohli continued.

“Obviously we’ve played a lot of Test matches, so it seems like a big gap,” he said. “But we still believe that he has enough to contribute for India. I certainly feel that he still has a lot to offer for Indian cricket, especially in the shorter formats.”