NEW YORK, Jun 4: India have four all-rounders in the T20 World Cup squad and Rohit Sharma underlined their importance on Tuesday, saying the management will look to use all of them effectively over the course of the tournament.
Hardik Pandya and Shivam Dube are the pace-bowling all-rounders while Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel are the two left-arm spinners who can also play an important role with the bat.
Speaking ahead of the tournament opener against Ireland, Rohit did not rule out the possibility of playing all four in the playing eleven to ensure a longer batting line-up.
“If you want to create a good balance in a team, you need a lot of all-rounders. In fast-bowling all-rounders we have Hardik and Dube while Jadeja and Axar give us options in the spin department,” said Rohit.
“How to use these four across the tournament. We have thought about it and we will decide how to use them depending on the conditions. How to use these four players, that is our focus.
“We have seen how big a role all-rounders can play in T20 cricket. Not just in T20 cricket, but in all formats. Their role will be more than the rest of the players.
“It is important that we can use these four players well. As I said, I don’t know if we can play all four together. If we can, that will be good. If we cannot, even then we have to find our way,” said the skipper.
Besides Jadeja and Axar, wrist spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal are also part of the potent attack.
“When we played the game with Bangladesh, all three spinners bowled two overs. It wasn’t that easy to hit them. And in yesterday’s match (SA versus SL), the spinners also took wickets. No one knows the conditions.
“The spinners will take wickets or the seamers will take. So, we possibly… We have to find the best combination and see what will suit our team. How can we keep our batting lineup longer? How can we have more bowling options?
“So, keeping these two things in mind, we will think of making a combination,” he said.
With the way the pitch behaved at Nassau County ground on Monday, expecting high scores witnessed in the recent IPL would be a tad too much.
India had the advantage of playing a warm-up against Bangladesh before facing Ireland, Pakistan and USA in tournament proper.
“Certainly it doesn’t look like a place where you can score easily. So we’ve got to be a little mindful of that and see what best we can do. That is what the experience in the dressing room is all about and we have got a lot of that.
“We are all coming off playing in IPL where a lot of runs were scored, so it’s important to have that balance, understand what is required here. It’s certainly not going to be an IPL kind of scores here, so we are very mindful of that and we just need to assess as quickly as possible and then bring your game into the picture,” said Rohit.
India will have to perform under the burden of tremendous expectations having not won an ICC title since 2013. They came very close at home six months ago before coming up short against Australia in the ODI World Cup final. The players took time to recover from that heartbreaking loss, including Rohit.
Considering that burden, what kind of mindset will the team carry into the tournament?
“I have thought a lot about this thing. I am just going to go and play the way I can and get everyone together to play as a team. I will be focusing on that. Everyone in the team have their own way of dealing with tournaments like World Cup and I’m sure they’ll take the right calls as well.
“But for me, it’s important not to look too far ahead. Just think about what we need to do tomorrow, play the game well and then take it from there. Not think too much and put pressure on yourself,” said Rohit.
He is also excited about playing in New York for the first time.
“We never thought cricket in America will be played at any given stage. But now that we are here, it’s a different feeling, right? From the time you arrived in New York, pending only 10 minutes at immigration, which is very rare, doesn’t happen.
“So you can make out that the buzz is there, even the locals here are quite intrigued by a cricket tournament happening, a world cup happening here, because we go to the cafes and all, there are a lot of locals who come there and wish us the best. We’ve been to Florida, but this is different.
“All of us who are playing here we will try to leave a mark on this city and the people of US as well,” he added. (PTI)
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