Hardik Pandya’s performance may have let Mumbai Indians down but the Indian team management isn’t looking much into it. The core group, which will comprise the XV for the T20 World Cup, was decided much before the IPL started barring a few spots.
“...If you start getting swayed by three or four weeks of cricket then there’s something wrong in your thinking over the last few months. So we were pretty clear with what we wanted to do.
“You can’t really change your planning and mindset around it (the IPL)... we had clarity on what our core group was going to be like, 70, 80 per cent... and then few changes,” captain Rohit Sharma said during a news conference at Cricket Centre, the BCCI headquarters on Thursday.
That was perhaps the reason behind Hardik retaining his place in the squad, his meek IPL 2024 performance — 197 runs in 10 matches; 6 wickets at an economy of 11.00 — notwithstanding.
Ajit Agarkar, the chairman of the selection committee, in response to a query from The Telegraph also clarified that “nothing was discussed with regards to vice-captaincy”.
“He (Hardik)’s come after a longish layoff. The good part that we’ve looked at is he’s got through all the games so far...
“So we know he’s doing that and the hope is that he keeps building on that form. So as long as he stays fit, we know what he brings, how much balance he gives the team. I don’t think there’s a replacement for the things that he can do as a cricketer at the moment... So his fitness for us is critical,” Agarkar said.
Rohit didn’t wish to dwell on the thinking behind picking four spinners — Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Yuzvendra Chahal.
“I don’t want to go too much into detail on it, I’m sure opposition captains are listening to this,” Rohit said. “I definitely wanted four spinners. We know what the conditions are like... there’s a little bit of technical aspect involved.”
The chief selector admitted that Rinku Singh’s exclusion was the toughest call.
“He (Rinku) has done nothing wrong, nor has Shubman Gill. It’s just the combinations,” Agarkar said. “We’re not sure of the conditions we’ll get and we wanted to have enough (bowling) options...
“I don’t think it’s anything to do with Rinku. It’s not his fault that he missed out, it’s more the XV we felt we needed... That’s how close he was, but we can only take XV.”
Shivam Dube’s power-hitting tilted the scales in his favour. “The one thing we really looked at was middle-overs hitting,” Rohit said.
“The top-order hitting has been alright... In the middle overs, we wanted someone to come and play that role where he can play freely without worrying about who is bowling... We picked Shivam Dube..”
The media conference couldn’t have been complete without a query on Virat Kohli’s strike rate. Both Rohit and Agarkar shared a laugh on the topic.
“I don’t think we’ve been discussing it... Look, he’s been in great form in the IPL. So no concerns there at all with regards to how it’s going in the IPL. You’re still going to a World Cup, it’s still international cricket. There is still that gap there.”
