NEW DELHI: Although the team has not yet been finalized, India captain
Rohit Sharma
believes he has roughly ten players in mind for the ICC
T20 World Cup
, which will take place in the Americas in June.
India's final Twenty20 match before the World Cup was the series versus Afghanistan. After a 14-month break, it also signaled
Rohit
and
Virat Kohli
's return to the format.
Shivam Dube and other fringe players had a chance to show their mettle in the series, which India won 3-0.
Speaking to Jio Cinema, Rohit stated that it is the nature of professional sport that some of the most talented players would not be selected for the event in the United States.
"Like when we were playing the ODI World Cup, we tried out many boys in T20s. They perform but when the main squad is announced, some boys have to be left out. So, it is disappointing for them. But our job is to bring clarity to the team.
"So, in the pool of 25-30 players we have, they know what is expected of each player. We have still not finalised the squad for the T20 World Cup, but obviously in the mind you know the 8-10 players who are going to play," he said on Wednesday night after the third and final T20 here.
The majority of the games will take place in the Caribbean, where slower pitches are anticipated.
"In the West Indies, the conditions are quite slow, so we have to pick the squad accordingly. Again I say,
Rahul
bhai and I have tried to maintain clarity in the team. The one thing I have learnt from captaincy is that you can't keep everyone happy. You have to focus on the needs of the team," said the skipper.
After a couple of ducks, Rohit got back among the runs with a record fifth T20 hundred. In his memorable effort, the skipper also attempted reverse hits multiple times with the surface playing out a few tricks in the powerplay.
"I have been practising it a lot in the nets. You have to play some shots in order to put the bowlers under pressure. When the ball is spinning and you can't hit straight, you have to try something new.
"I have been practising reverse sweeps and sweeps for the past two years. You would have seen me play them once or twice in Test matches. You have the options and it's up to you how you are using those options.
"The ball was spinning and gripping today so, I thought I'd play with the spin rather than step out and hit hard in front of the wicket," he said.
Rohit also caught up on the team's World Cup preparations with the three games.
"I had not played for one year, so I discussed ideas with Rahul bhai (
Dravid
). Although I was watching the games, I was not playing. I got an understanding of a few things, so we wanted to implement them and also do something different.
"We wanted our bowlers to bowl in a different way, someone wasn't comfortable bowling in the power play, so we had to use them there. Some were not comfortable bowling at the death, we asked them to bowl there," he added.
(With PTI inputs)
English (US) ·