India captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid have been slammed since the side's stunning 10-wicket defeat to England in the T20 World Cup semifinals last week. The criticism has continued to mount in recent days with several former cricketers and pundits blasting them right, left, and center. After receiving flak from the likes of Sunil Gavaskar, Michael Vaughan, and Harbhajan Singh, the latest to join the bandwagon is former India batter, Mohammed Kaif. The common theme behind Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid's criticism has been the selection blunders the duo committed during India's failed T20 World Cup campaign in Australia. Among the poor calls was not allowing leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal to feature in the playing XI in the entire tournament, something that has perplexed many ex-India cricketers, especially tweakers.

Before Mohammed Kaif, Harbhajan Singh said that Yuzvendra Chahal must have done something extremely wrong to not play even one match in the T20 World Cup.

“I don't know what are the reasons that a champion bowler (Yuzvendra Chahal) is not in the team. He must have done something to someone that he is not getting a game. With his credentials he should have been your first-choice spinner,” Harbhajan Singh told India Today.

Mohammed Kaif, on the other hand, pointed toward the success wrist-spinners achieved Down Under with England's Adil Rashid being one of the key players of their T20 World Cup triumph.

“Leg-spinners have a crucial role and every team plays a leg-spinner – be it England, Australia, or South Africa. Look at ICC bowling rankings and you will find that four to five leg-spinners are part of the top 10. Finger spinners don’t get much help in Australia. There is bounce; hence the wrist spinners come into play. Not playing Chahal was a big mistake. Only Rohit and Dravid can explain it,” Mohammed Kaif said on Sportskeeda.

“Varun Chakravarthy was picked for the last World Cup because he did well in the IPL that was held ahead of the tournament. The selectors get so influenced by IPL performances that they end up making mistakes. Chahal did not play last year, and this year too he was benched for the entire tournament,” he added.

While Mohammed Kaif penned Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma for their poor choices in the T20 World Cup, former India all-rounder Ravi Shastri questioned the BCCI's decision to rest the latter for the side's tour of New Zealand.

“I do not believe is breaks. Because I want to understand my team, I want to understand my players and I want to then, be in control of that team. These breaks… what do you need that many breaks for to be honest? You get your 2-3 months of the IPL, that's enough for you to rest as a coach. But other times, I think a coach should be hands on, whoever he is,” Ravi Shastri said in a press conference in Wellington.”

Ravi Shastri though agreed with India's great VVS Laxman's viewpoint that the Men in Blue need to have talented youngsters in their T20i squad if they are to win the next T20 World Cup in the West Indies and USA.

“I think that is the way forward. VVS is right. They will identify the specialists, especially with youngsters because going forward, that should be the mantra. Two years from now, identify and make that Indian team into a terrific fielding side and of course identify roles for these youngsters who could be fearless. And go out there and play that kind of cricket without any baggage whatsoever,” Ravi Shastri added.

“There is an opportunity with this team in the future to identify match winners and duties, and going pretty much on the template of England. Because they are one team that really caught the bull by its horns after the 2016 World Cup. They went, they sat down and said, ‘We are going to change our resources. We are going to identify the best players for that format of the game – whether it's T20 or 50-over cricket. And which meant that if there were certain senior players who would sit out, then be it. And they got in youngsters who were fearless, who could adapt to that pattern of the game without having to change too much. So it's a template that can be followed easily. India have got a wealth of resources and I think it can start now from this tour. Because when you look at this team, it's a fresh, young side… you can identify, groom and take this team ahead in two years' time,” Ravi Shastri concluded.