T20 World Cup: Skipper Rohit Sharma sheds light on inclusion of four spinners

Mumbai: Skipper Rohit Sharma revealed that he wanted four spinners in India’s 15-player squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup, which is slated to begin in June this year. India decided to include four spinners in the squad, which consists of Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, and Yuzvendra Chahal.

During a press conference held at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai, Rohit admitted that he wanted to have four spinners in the squad but held himself back from revealing the reason behind his decision.

“I definitely wanted four spinners we have played a lot of cricket there, there is a technical aspect involved in it. There is a reason for four spinners which I am not going to say now but I wanted four spinners for sure and three seamers and Hardik being fourth,” Rohit said.

“I don’t want to go into too much detail because I am sure opposition captains will listen to this. I wanted more spinners, we know what the conditions are like. Matches start at 10-10.30 in the morning. There’s a technical aspect involved in this. Maybe in the first press conference in the West Indies, I’ll speak about it. Won’t say now, but definitely there. I wanted four spinners and three seamers with Hardik being there you get the balance. With two spinners being all-rounders, then two attacking spinners give you balance in the spin department as well. Based on opposition composition we can decide what to play with,” he added.

Despite having four spinners in the squad, India still does not have an off-spinner in their talented pool of players. Washington Sundar and Ravichandran Ashwin were the two available options to pick from the off-spin department. Rohit talked about how the lack of T20I games for both spinners led to Axar Patel being included in the squad because of his form in the shortest format of cricket especially in the five-match series against Australia,which was held last year.

“We discussed a lot, unfortunately, Washy (Washington) hasn’t played a lot lately. It was then between Ash and Axar. It was like that, we thought having 2 left arm spinners - Ash hasn’t played the format lately. Axar was in good form when he played those 5 matches against Australia. He has been bowling well and gives us that left-handed option in the middle if we want to do something different,” Rohit said.

With many talented players in all departments, there has been a lot of speculation around India’s playing XI. Rohit revealed that as of now there is “no guarantee” around the playing XI. “There’s no guarantee what our playing XI will look like when we go there. We have a couple of practice games, see what our opposition lines up,” says Rohit Sharma.

The Men in Blue will begin their T20 World Cup campaign against Ireland on June 5, at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, New York, followed by the marquee clash against Pakistan on June 09 at the same venue. India will then play against USA and Canada on June 12 and 15 respectively. (ANI)

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