India captain Rohit Sharma confirmed on Tuesday that Ishan Kishan, who sat out of the Sri Lanka ODI series against Bangladesh despite scoring a double ton in his last ODI innings, will be accommodated in middle order in the first ODI against New Zealand on Wednesday. . “Kishan will hit in the middle and I’m glad he can get a point here after that nice knock in Bangladesh,” he said.
Mohammad Siraj, Mohammad Shami and Umran Malik were India’s favorite trio against Sri Lanka. Add leggie Yuzvendra Chahal to the playing elf and the tail looks a lot longer.
Rohit said Shardul Thakur has been brought back to the squad to address that issue, but it is one of the areas the team needs to work on ahead of the World Cup.
“I honestly don’t want to compromise on anything,” he said when asked about playing seven batters and four specialist bowlers.
“At the end of the day you want to play your best eleven. Numbers eight and nine are going to be a challenge for us, someone who can hit that point. That’s why we brought in Shardul, he can give us that advantage.” at number eight.
“That’s one aspect where we can be challenged if we lose early wickets or in middle order. It’s something you can worry about. But having said that, if you have good seven hitters who can do the job for us in every situation that is then you can also look at playing combinations.
“We will play all over India (World Cup) under different conditions. We have to judge everything. Whether we can play with three spinners. Fortunately, we have spinners who can hit – Axar, Washy (Sundar), Shahbaz and Jaddu (Ravindra Jadeja).
“Those are the guys who can give us the depth we are looking for, not to mention the two high quality wrist spinners we have as well,” he said referring to Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav.
Important to manage Siraj
Rohit raved about Siraj ahead of the pacer’s first ODI at his home ground. The skipper said Siraj has improved tremendously in all formats over the past two years. He was also the standout pacer against Sri Lanka.
“He is a very important player for us. He has improved his line and length a lot in the last two years. Now we get to see his outswing. He was not known for his swing, but he did it against Sri Lanka. That is very good for the team if he can do that consistently with the new ball.
“He understands his bowling much better now and I think that’s very important. He also knows what the team wants from him. All in all he has become a very good bowler for us. He can take wickets in all phases and we have bowlers like him We need to manage him and keep him fresh for the World Cup and the upcoming Tests against Australia.”
Rohit added that New Zealand will be a big challenge for his team.
“It’s a great opportunity and great opposition. We can challenge ourselves to achieve what we can as a team. They come from a good run in Pakistan.
“At the same time, it’s important not to look too much into the opposition. They keep changing, but your planning and execution shouldn’t change. That has been conveyed to the team members. Last series was a perfect example of that and we played fearless cricket.” “
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