India captain Rohit Sharma and BCCI chief selector Ajit Agarkar, on September 5, 2023, announce the 15-man India squad for the upcoming ICC World Cup tournament which begins on October 5.
The 15-member squad saw most of the current team players involved in Asia Cup 2023 being picked for the ICC event barring Prasidh Krishna, Tilak Varma, and Sanju Samson.
During the press conference in Colombo, Sharma was asked about the buzz created around India-Pakistan matches as was seen in 2015 World Cup and in the 2019 edition as well.
India is scheduled to play Pakistan at Ahmedabad in October 14. The skipper was annoyed at the question and snapped back at the journalist saying that he wouldn’t be answering any such queries when press conferences happen back in India.
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“How many times have I repeated this? Our work is something else. Our work is not to look at outside buzz and play according to that. All players are professional and they have seen all these things in the past. So, it doesn't make a huge difference. Aise sawal mat puchna jab humlog press conference karenga India me World Cup ke samae. Iska jawab mein nehi duunga (Please don't ask me such questions even when we hold a press conference in India before the World Cup. I'll not answer such questions). It doesn't make sense to keep talking about it because our focus is something else and we as a team would like to focus on that particular thing,” Sharma said.
Sharma said that the squad was along the expected lines, and no drastic changes had been made.
"There are no surprises and you can get only 15 in. Some of the guys will be disappointed. I have gone through it and I know how it feels. We have good all-round options and this is the best 15 we could get.
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I have not thought about plans yet. The problem of plenty is a good problem to have. We have to see who is in form and who our opposition is. We need to see what the best possible combination could be. If someone misses out, then so be it. This keeps happening. You have to make tough calls for the team," he further added.
While talking about the inclusion of two extra all-rounders in Akshar Patel and Shardul Thakur, Sharma said that all good sides in the world had bowlers who could bat a little and add that extra bit of punch at the back end.
"We have to create the batting depth. Obviously, Nos 8 and 9 become crucial when it comes to batting depth. We fell a little short at the back end with the bat. Their job is not just to bowl the opposition out but also to score some runs. 10 or 15 runs could be the difference between winning and losing.
You have to see what the conditions are. Six bowlers cannot bowl 10 overs each, you have to see what suits which bowler that day. There will be times where spinners will not bowl their full quota of 20 overs," Sharma further added.
India’s 15-member squad for ICC World Cup 2023:
Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya (VC), Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Akshar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj.
