India captain Rohit Sharma blamed injuries to players in multiple teams ahead of the World Cup 2023 on excessive traveling that the players do. Teams like Sri Lanka, Australia, and New Zealand have several players injured in their line-up and are struggling to get their players fit ahead of the tournament.
On the other hand, India itself is battling a few injury concerns as Akshar Patel and Shreyas Iyer are battling niggles and are racing against time to get fit before the World Cup begins on October 5.
During the presser to announce the Indian squad for the Australia ODIs, Rohit said that India has rotated their team to keep people fresh going into the ODI World Cup.
"Our endeavour is to give everyone a chance. If we only play 11 through the year, then you can't create bench strength. You can see that some other teams are facing injury problems because it also involves a lot of travelling and we have to play 11 matches and crisscross the country.
So, we will have a lot of traveling and a lot of matches. We want to make sure that some of the guys sitting out have enough confidence by playing a few games and not like suddenly they are thrown in," Rohit said in a presser organized by BCCI.
The BCCI surprised everyone by calling up R Ashwin for the Australia ODIs and Rohit revealed that he had been in touch with Ashwin over the phone and said that players need to keep themselves ready because they can be called up at any time.
"Eventually, players need to be ready and anyone can be called at any time. You need to remain strong and sportspersons need to be ready. If you are summoned, you need to perform as we have seen for years, chances do come. Bench strength is important and we always try to find a chance to give people a chance," Sharma stressed.
India and Australia will play three ODIs on September 22, 24 and 27 before the World Cup begins.
