Mumbai: India captain Rohit Sharma clarified that majority of the T20 World Cup-bound players were given a role clarity before the Indian Premier League started and too much focus wasn’t given to the performances in the cash-rich league. Shubman Gill and Rinku Singh were the notable names to have missed out on the 15-member squad while leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal made a comeback to the Indian team after getting excluded last year both in Asia Cup and ODI World Cup.
Yashavi Jaiswal has been preferred over Gill while Shivam Dube got better of Rinku. “Whatever team we have selected, we had to work on that. The players were in our mind before the start of the IPL as who are going to be on that flight,” Rohit said on Friday after Mumbai Indians’ final IPL 2024 game.
“Performances in IPL is always up and down and we haven’t given too much focus on IPL. Role clarity is one of the most important things nowadays and we had already told the boys about their roles before the IPL. We have played in Florida before and the ball tends to keep a bit low there. We will be playing first time in New York and we have players for all conditions,” added the Mumbai Indians opener.
Although he was stripped of Mumbai Indians captaincy before the start of the tournament, that didn’t had an effect on his game as he became the franchise’s highest run-getter in the season. In 14 games, Rohit scored 417 runs including an unbeaten hundred and at a strike rate of 150.
Meanwhile, India will be playing three of the league games including the marquee clash against Pakistan at the drop-in pitch at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York. While the term ‘drop-in’ pitch might sound new to most of the Indian fans, the right-hander was confident in stating what to expect.
“We have worked a little bit on our preparation for the World Cup. We will be playing in drop-in pitches in New York. We have played before in drop-in pitches and have a fair idea what to expect,” added Rohit. Put in Group A, India have Pakistan, USA, Canada and Ireland to play in the league stage. While India play Pakistan, USA and Ireland in New York, the Men in Blue to travel to Florida to play Canada at the Central Broward Regional Park Stadium.
“That’s why we are going there 10-15 days before so that we get acclimatize with the conditions and get to practice on that ground. We are also playing a practice game there and luckily there will be a game on the venue before we start out campaign. So that will give us more clarity on what will be our approach and what combination we will be playing,” he added.
