India captain Rohit Sharma has blamed excessive travelling for injuries creeping up on multiple sides ahead of the ODI World Cup 2023. Teams like Sri Lanka, Australia and New Zealand have several players injured in their line-up and are struggling to get their players fit ahead of the tournament. India themselves are currently dealing with injuries to Axar Patel and Shreyas Iyer who are a crucial part of their line-up.
While announcing the India squad for the 3-match Australia series, Sharma said that India have rotated their team to keep people fresh going into the ODI World Cup.
“Our endeavour is to give everyone a chance. If we only play 11 through the year, then you can’t create bench strength. You can see that some other teams are facing injury problems because it also involves a lot of travelling and we have to play 11 matches and crisscross the country,” Rohit said when asked about travelling involved over the course of the World Cup.
“So, we will have a lot of travelling and a lot of matches. We want to make sure that some of the guys sitting out have enough confidence by playing a few games and not like suddenly they are thrown in,” Sharma said.
Ravichandran Ashwin has been named in the final ODI series ahead of the tournament after he was snubbed from the Asia Cup and the preliminary ODI World Cup squad. Rohit said that he had been in touch with Ashwin over phone and said that players need to keep themselves ready because they can be called up at any time.
“Eventually, players need to be ready and anyone can be called at any time. You need to remain strong and sportspersons need to be ready. If you are summoned, you need to perform as we have seen for years, chances do come. Bench strength is important and we always try to find a chance to give people chance,” Sharma stressed
