Zaheer Khan, Ravi Shastri against Indian players playing foreign leagues; Here's why

Ravi Shastri and Zaheer Khan believe that there is no need for Indian players to play any sort of franchise cricket outside India and termed it absolutely unnecessary. 

The calls to let the Indian players play in global T20 tournaments gained steam after the team's semifinal exit from the T20 World Cup. Powered by Alex Hales, who played a lot of cricket with his BBL franchise at MCG, Jos Buttler, England crushed India by 10 wickets. 

"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 very important and with BCCI with its shadow tours, that process is well in place. I don't see any other reason for players to go and play in a particular tournament," Zaheer said.

Shastri then added that India have a robust structure in place and questioned any need of depending on others.  He also went on to say that there is enough domestic cricket for all the players in India to get an opportunity. 

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"You already have a robust structure, why depend on others? We have more than enough means to produce good players and you look at our bench strength. You can virtually play three lineups and they can compete at any level. There is enough domestic cricket for all these players to get absorbed in the system and get an opportunity.

Ravi went on to say that apart from all the domestic cricket, there are India A tours as well and the players are fine by just focusing on IPL.

"Plus you get India A tours and all other tours where at one given time two Indian teams will be playing in the future and the opportunity will come for the other lot to go somewhere else whilst India is in some other country to go play. There is no need, they are absolutely fine playing IPL and focusing on domestic cricket, we need them to play domestic cricket in India as well."

Talking about Umran Malik, Zaheer and Shastri both agreed that it is a big opportunity for him and hoped that he made the best use of it.  

"Umran has been an exciting talent and this kind of exposure will help him. It's about how he takes things forward and how quickly he understands that this stage is going to be crucial if he wants to grab that spot in the playing XI and cement his place," Zaheer said.

"He's one of the fastest bowlers in India and you saw what happened in the World Cup, genuine pace rattled opposition whether it was Haris Rauf or Naseem Shah, Anrich Nortje. There is no substitute for genuine pace even while defending small scores. It's an opportunity for him and hopefully, he will learn from this experience."

India will face New Zealand in the 1st T20 of the 3-match series, starting November 18 in Wellington.