Indian men’s cricket team captain Rohit Sharma has refused to divulge the decision behind including four spinners in the T20 World Cup squad. Sharma alongside BCCI chief selector Ajit Agarkar addressed the media in Mumbai on Thursday (May 2), a little over 48 hours after the squad was first announced. 

During the press conference, Rohit said it was on his insistence that the selectors picked four spinners. 

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“I don’t want to go too much into detail on it, I’m sure opposition captains are listening to thisI definitely wanted four spinners. We’ve played a lot of cricket there [West Indies], we know what the conditions are like. The match probably starts at 10-10:30 in the morning. There is a little bit of technical aspect involved in this,” said Rohit. 

“Maybe in the first press conference when I do in the West Indies, I’ll give more detail on this. I am not going to say it in public now but I’ll definitely say it there,” he added. 

India have picked two wrist spinners in Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal while left-arm spin allrounders Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel form the other half of the spin quartet. However, the decision to go with four spinners has drawn the ire of fans who questioned if Rinku Singh‘s place was compromised due to Rohit’s belief.  

“I wanted four spinners for sure. With two of the spinners being allrounders who can bat, Axar and Jadeja, and two attacking spinners – Kuldeep and Chahal – it gives you the balance in the spin department. Based on the team composition of the opposition we can decide what we want to play with,” Rohit further explained. 

Agarkar explains Rinku’s exclusion

Quizzed about Rinku’s exclusion from the squad, Agarkar reiterated that he wanted to give ample spin bowling options to Rohit for the slow decks in the West Indies. 

“Toughest thing we have had to do. He [Rinku] has done nothing wrong or for that matter Shubman Gill. It is about the combination…we are not sure about the conditions we will get,” said Agarkar.

“We wanted to try and have enough options. There are a couple of wrist spinners included – Chahal and Kuldeep to give Rohit more options. Axar, again, a batting allrounder or rather bowling allrounder,” he added. 

The World Cup gets underway on June 2 while India open their campaign against Ireland on June 5 at Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, currently under development in New York. 

India squad: 

Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Siraj

Reserves: Shubman Gill, Rinku Singh, Khaleel Ahmed and Avesh Khan

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