Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) chief selector Ajit Agarkar and Indian skipper Rohit Sharma faced the media and answered tough questions two days after the announcement of the ‘Men in Blue’s official 15-member squad was announced.
During the press conference, Rohit was asked why four spinners were chosen in the 15-member squad. To this, Rohit answered in his unique quirky style, “I definitely wanted four spinners. But, I won’t tell you the reason now. Maybe I’ll reveal it in the first press conference in the US.”
On the similar lines, when a journalist highlighted the absence of an-off spinner in the squad and ‘hopefully the captain can roll his arm over’, the Indian skipper raised his hand – indicating he is an off-spinner on the team.
Rohit then replied, “Something that we discussed a lot. We discussed whether to have off spinner or not. Washy hasn’t played a lot of cricket. And it was between Ash and Axar… it was like that. We though that having 2 left arm spinners and being doing well. Ashwin hasn’t played much lately. Axar was in good form from 50 overs format when he played those matches against AUS. So he’s been bowling well for India. It gives us that left handed option if we have to send someone in them middle. And of course, a very experienced player.”
Though this amused Ajit Agarkar, but this is not the first time that Rohit indicated about his bowling prowess.
Earlier in 2023, after the Asia Cup squad announcement for India when the issue of lack of part time bowlers was raised, Agarkar had indicated both Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma can roll their arms over in the 2023 World Cup.
Surprisingly, Rohit did bowl the last over in the league stage of ICC World Cup 2023 against Netherlands and picked up Teja Nidamanuru’s wicket.
India T20 World Cup 2024 Squad:
Rohit Sharma (C), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Hardik Pandya (VC), Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.
Reserve – Rinku Singh, Shubman Gill, Khaleel Ahmed and Avesh Khan.
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Published: 02 May 2024, 10:44 PM IST