When cricketing history in India and Pakistan sees similar transformation, it reflects in sound bytes and newspaper columns. Both India and Pakistan are going through a transitional period with debates raging over whether the ‘seniors’ should make way for new blood.

Pak vice-captain Younis Khan, who was in a chirpy mood today during an interaction with the Indian media, quipped: “I am the only old man left in the team.”

On a more serious note, he added: “Seniors are needed as their experience counts when the team is in a tight situation. Two or three seniors in a team can always guide youngsters.”

Asked whether Twenty20 format is making cricket more youth oriented, he said: “I don’t think so. Yeh koi badi baat nahin hai. Any senior can adopt. Sourav Ganguly or Sachin Tendulkar can comfortably play Twenty20.”

The Pak vice-captain said youngsters can often finish a match with a great performance, but they can also lose one under pressure. “Players like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid or Shoaib Akhtar have gone through pressure situations thousands of times. They know how to deal with them,” he said.

Expressing surprise over the omission of Dravid from the Indian squad for the first two ODIs, he said: “If India win, then okay. But if they lose, they will be forced to bring Dravid back.”

Pointing a finger at the administrators of the game in both countries, he said that India and Pakistan have to understand how to deal with seniors. “The juniors have to be groomed under them. When you replace a player like Dravid, Ganguly or Tendulkar you must have someone who can at least be 75 per cent of what these guys were,” he said, adding that India and Pakistan are trying to follow the Australians in this aspect but without the back up that the Aussies enjoys.

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