India captain Rohit Sharma has opened up on why he and Virat Kohli have not been playing T20I format since the last year’s T20 World Cup in Australia. In Rohit’s absence, Hardik Pandya has been leading the Indian team in the shortest format. The team management decided to give chances to the young players in T20Is as Rohit, Kohli and KL Rahul looked not in the scheme of things.
However, Rohit made a point that last year the senior players missed the ODI format because of the T20 World Cup and are doing the same this year with the 50-over WC around the corner.
“Last year also we did the same thing — the T20 World Cup was there, so we didn’t play one-day cricket. Now also we are doing the same, the ODI World Cup is there, so we are not playing T20s,” Rohit told the media on the sidelines of an event.
The Indian skipper pointed out that apart from him and Rohit even Ravindra Jadeja is not playing in the ongoing T20Is against West Indies but nobody is questioning it.
“You can’t play everything and be ready for the World Cup. We decided this two years ago. (Ravindra) Jadeja is also not playing T20, you did not ask about him? I understand about the focus (on himself and Virat). But Jadeja is also not playing,” Rohit said in reply to a query about him and Kohli missing India’s recent T20 assignments.
“It is a World Cup year; we want to keep everyone fresh; already we had so many injuries in the team that I am scared of injuries now,” he continued.
Rohit revealed that the team management had a discussion with the BCCI on the aspect of managing the workload of players.
“We had a discussion with the BCCI also that we need to look after the players well. Whenever we have an opportunity to rest players, we will rest players and rotate them. We don’t want anyone to miss the key events.
“A couple of our key players missed some big events in the last two years and we don’t want that,” he said.
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