India white-ball captain Rohit Sharma on Tuesday said that the Indian Premier League (IPL) mega auction is over and the focus of everyone on his side should be on the color 'blue' and the mission should be to do best for the country.
Team India prepares to play West Indies in a series of three T20I matches starting February 16 in Kolkata.
The focus for the Indian team in this series against West Indies, who are coming off a 3-2 T20I series win over England, will be to develop a core nucleus that will play for them in the T20 World Cup 2022, Australia.
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"It was understood that guys will go through ups and downs, some emotional feeling within themselves on which team they will play for in the IPL. But that was done the day before yesterday, we had a great meeting with everyone and we asked them to focus on the color blue for the next two weeks. Whatever has happened has happened, for the next two weeks, they have to focus on playing for India, nothing else," said Rohit during a virtual press conference.
"That is something we spoke of and all these guys are professionals, you can expect once they wear India colors, it is all about India, nothing else matters," he added.
Rohit Sharma also said that there will be no consideration or thought of who will bat where, in IPL teams, given that his franchise Mumbai Indians bought opener-keeper Ishan Kishan for a whopping INR 15.25 crores.
Ishan Kishan is also in the Indian T20I side for the West Indies series and is expected to open with Rohit after KL Rahul was ruled out due to a hamstring niggle.
"There is no consideration of IPL here honestly. We are not looking at where will players bat for their franchise in the IPL, we are looking at where they will bat for Team India, as simple as that. We will be focusing on this, these guys do different roles for their franchises, what we need from them here is important. IPL will happen later, we will take care of it them," said Rohit.
"This is the time for us to do things and guys have been spoken to on what we are expecting out of them. Whether it is bowler or batter, the clarity has been given to them and it is up to them on how they want to adapt," he added.
(ANI inputs)
