India’s decision to pick four spinners in its 15-member squad for the T20 World Cup has drawn mixed reactions from the cricketing fraternity. However, captain Rohit Sharma insisted that he wanted to opt for four spinners for reasons he did not want to disclose.
India had just three slots for specialist fast bowlers, while it picked four spinners in Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal and all-rounders Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel in the provisional squad. While three of them were in the scheme of things for a while, Chahal was not part of India’s T20 squads against South Africa and Afghanistan. However, an impressive outing in the ongoing IPL earned him a spot in the squad.
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However, with a smile on his face, Rohit maintained secrecy over his decision. “Maybe when I do the first press conference upon landing, I will give more details,” he said, adding: “The reason for four spinners is this, which I’m not going to say in public. But I wanted four spinners for sure. With two of the spinners being all-rounders 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.”
The squad, however, does not have a specialist off-spinner and Rohit revealed that the issue was discussed with the selectors. “Washi (Washington Sundar) hasn’t played a lot lately. It was then between Ash and Axar. It was like that, we thought of having two left arm spinners – Ash hasn’t played the format lately. Axar was in good form when he played those five matches against Australia. He has been bowling well and gives us that left handed option in the middle if we want to do something different,” Rohit added.
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