“I don’t want to go into too much detail on this, I’m sure the opposition captain will be hearing it,” Rohit said in Mumbai. “I definitely wanted four spinners. We have played a lot of cricket there (Caribbean). We know what the conditions are like. Starts at 10-10.30 in the morning, there is a bit of a technical aspect involved as well.”
India chose left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav, leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal and left-arm spin all-rounders Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel in their provisional 15 players, leaving room for only three specialist fast bowlers and no replacement for Rinku Singh. No space left. Chahal was not part of India’s T20I squad for their two most recent series – in South Africa in December and against Afghanistan at home in January – and was selected after his excellent form in IPL 2024.
“Maybe when I do the first press conference (on landing), I will give more details,” Rohit said about choosing four spinners. “The reason for four spinners is, which I am not going to say publicly. But I definitely wanted four spinners. Two spinners are all-rounders who can bat, Axar and Jadeja, and two attacking spinners – Kuldeep and Chahal – It gives you balance in the spin department, depending on the team composition of the opponent we can decide who we want to play.
Dubey was selected for the strength of the middle order.
While Rohit would not discuss whether Virat Kohli could be his opening partner in place of Yashasvi Jaiswal, he stressed on the need for more strength in the middle order, which led to the selection of Shivam Dubey.
“One thing we really focused on was hitting in the middle overs,” Rohit said. “The top-order hitting is OK, not bad, but there are options there as well. In the middle overs, we wanted someone to come in and play that role where he can play freely without worrying about who is bowling. Who has been there and who is not? We have selected Shivam Dubey on the basis of some of his IPL and pre-IPL matches.”
Dubey has been in explosive form for Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2024, with his 350 runs coming at a strike rate of 171.56 and he is third in the six-hitting charts this season. He was also the leading run-scorer in the T20I series against Afghanistan in January, with 124 runs in three innings at a strike rate of 158.97. Rohit was also hopeful that Dubey would contribute with the ball when needed, although he has bowled only one over in his first ten matches in IPL 2024.
Rohit said, “I know Shivam has not bowled a single over, but he is an experienced cricketer who bowls a lot of overs in red-ball cricket.” “To be honest, if we need Shivam to bowl a few overs, he will bowl a few overs. Hardik too, he has been bowling regularly in the IPL. Whenever needed, he has come and bowled. As for Ajit ( Agarkar) said, he has come and played all the games, fitness-wise, there is no problem.”
Why did KL Rahul miss out?
India’s decision to choose Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson as the two wicketkeepers ahead of KL Rahul was due to their ability to bat in the middle order.
“KL is a brilliant player, we all know that,” said Agarkar, chairman of the selection committee. “The thing is that we were looking at people batting in the middle order, and at the moment KL is batting at the top.”
When it was reported that Samson is batting at No. 3 for Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2024, Agarkar said: “We think Sanju has the ability to come in lower down the order if needed, Rishabh at No. 5-6 Batting was more about the slot we needed, the guys who spent a little more time in the latter part of the innings.”
After suffering a serious car accident in December 2022, Pant made a successful comeback in IPL 2024, scoring 398 runs at a strike rate of 158.56 in his first 11 innings for Delhi Capitals and proving that his wicketkeeping skills are at their best again. Has been. Samson has scored 385 runs for Royals in nine innings at a strike rate of 161.08.
‘Rinku’s boycott one of the most difficult decisions’
Leaving out Rinku Singh was the “toughest” decision taken by the India selectors while picking the team.
“She (Rinku) has done nothing wrong, nor has Shubman Gill. It’s just a combination of circumstances,” Agarkar said. “We are not sure about the conditions we will get (in the USA) and we wanted enough (bowling) options.
“We had a few wrist spinners to give Rohit more options, I don’t think it was anything to do with Rinku. It’s not his fault he missed, we felt we needed more than 15 keepers “There are two keepers who are both fantastic.” Batsmen, we will have an extra batsman. We will have another bowling option, but he is still one of the traveling options, but we can only take 15.
Rinku has played 15 T20 matches for India, in which she has scored 356 runs at a strike rate of 176.23. However, he had a quiet IPL 2024: 123 runs off 82 balls at a strike rate of 150 in eight innings.
Shashank Kishore is senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
