Team India are all set to play a Test series against New Zealand. Ahead of the series, India captain Rohit Sharma opened up on having a pool of players – be it batting or bowling.
“When it comes to batting, there are a lot of options. We want to create the same with the bowlers as well. Hence, we tried and kept them within the squad. So tomorrow, if we feel like they are ready to take that role, they should be ready for it. They have obviously played a few games before we made this announcement. They have played the Duleep Trophy, Irani Trophy as well. So we just want to make sure that they are monitored quite well. Their workloads have been taken care of,” said Rohit.
“When you see a talent, you want to try and bring them as close to the team as possible. In the short period of time, they have shown they have some ability as well. We want to keep them with the team and see whether they will be ready for international cricket or not. Especially Test cricket. Test cricket is a different ball game compared to white ball cricket. We want to keep them. We want to see what they can offer us. And have more options with us, more than anything else. We want to create a bench strength where tomorrow if anything happens to anyone, we are not worried. We don’t want to be worried or too heavily reliant on a few individuals.That is not the right thing to do. We want to look at the future at the same time. Try and make sure we get the right guys in as well,” he again added.
“Sometimes you have to fast track someone. And that is only in the betterment of Indian cricket. We want to create guys where even if there are injuries, we have someone to quickly step in and take that role. Nitish and Harshit both are quite talented individuals. In the future, they are going to provide a lot of stability to the team moving forward. Just want to see what they are capable of, what they have to offer. Just having a chat around what they think about Test cricket and stuff like that. Because we don’t get to talk to them so much. So it’s always nice to just have them around and see their mindset, where they are at and what they think about playing test cricket,” further shared Rohit.
However, the pace bowling unit apart, Rohit’s own participation in the India-Australia series could be in doubt. India have named Jasprit Bumrah as the vice-captain for the New Zealand series as well.
“Bumrah has played a lot of cricket and I have played a lot of cricket with him. He understands the game pretty well. He has got a good head on his shoulder. Tactically, I can’t say much because he has not captained much. He has captained one Test match and a couple of T20s, I guess. But look, when you talk to him, he understands the game. He understands what is required. When you are in a situation where you need a leader to step up, I think Bumrah will be one of them,” he shared.
“So over the past, he has always been in our leadership group. You know, whether it is speaking to the bowlers who have just come into the squad. Whether it is just getting internally with the team to discuss about how to move forward as a team. So he has always been part of that leadership group. And yeah, I guess one of the experienced players as well. So it’s probably the right thing to just have him around and speak to the bowlers. And internally discuss how to take the team forward,” Rohit Sharma concluded.
