India captain Rohit Sharma snapped at a journalist during the ODI World Cup squad announcement on Tuesday, 5 September. Sharma, who was speaking alongside chief selector Ajit Agarkar was asked about the public perception when India play in the world tournaments. Sharma snapped back at the journalist and said that he would not entertain such questions when press conferences happen back in India.
“I have said this so many times. We don’t care what happens on the outside. All the players in our team are professional. Don’t ask me such questions. I won’t ask such questions. It doesn’t make sense to talk about such things. Our focus is something else and we do not care about these things,” Sharma said.
India stuck with their Asia Cup by and large and cut off two players to make it a 15-member squad for the ODI World Cup. Prasidh Krishna and Tilak Varma could not make it into the side.
Sharma said that the squad was along the expected lines, and no drastic changes had been made.
“There are no surprises and you can get only 15 in. Some of the guys will be disappointed. I have gone through it and I know how it feels. We have good all-round options and this is the best 15 we could get,” Sharma said.
“I have not thought about plans yet. The problem of plenty is a good problem to have. We have to see who is in form and who our opposition is. We need to see what the best possible combination could be. If someone misses out, then so be it. This keeps happening. You have to make tough calls for the team,” he further added.
The Indian captain argued that the bowling unit had been planned to help out in the batting department as well. Sharma said that all good sides in the world had bowlers who could bat a little and add that extra bit of punch at the back end.
“We have to create the batting depth. Obviously, the Nos 8 and 9 become crucial when it comes to batting depth. We fell a little short at the back end with the bat. Their job is not just to bowl the opposition out but also to score some runs. 10 or 15 runs could be the difference between winning and losing,” Sharma said during the press conference.
“You got to see what the conditions are. Six bowlers cannot bowl 10 overs each, you have to see what suits which bowler that day. There will be times where spinners will not bowl their full quota of 20 overs,” Sharma further added.
ODI World Cup 2023 Squad
Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya (VC), Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj
