'It Is Tough To Leave Some Out': Skipper Rohit Sharma On Selection Hassle Ahead Of The Nagpur Test

The Border-Gavaskar Trophy is going to be a challenging series, according to Rohit Sharma.

Rohit Sharma's Indian team will be playing against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar series which starts on Thursday. The Indian skipper spoke to the media ahead of the first Test match. “We have four solid test matches to play in the BGT and we would want to win the series. It is going to be a challenging series and we have to be up for it. Preparation is the key. If you prepare well, you get results”, Rohit said.

On selection chaos, he stated, “It is tough. The guys are in good form, pushing for a spot and doing really well, and it is tough to leave some out.”

“But it is a good sign overall that all the guys are performing well and in with a chance for selection. But we will see the conditions and pick teams accordingly. Different pitches would need different skillset. The message is clear, we would take horses for course and all options are open.”

After being asked about Australian media talking about pitches, the Indian captain stated, “Just focus on cricket and not the pitch. After all the 22 guys out there are all quality players.”

“It is important to have a plan and figure a way. Everyone has a different method. Some like to sweep some reverse some hitting over the bowler. You need to rotate strike and sometimes you need to counterattack.

“The captains would obviously try different things and change fields and bowlers. So you need to plan and play accordingly.”

Squads:

India: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer (injured and yet to recover), KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), R. Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Suryakumar Yadav. (Ravindra Jadeja's inclusion in the squad is subject to fitness report).

Australia: Pat Cummins (capt), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green (injured), Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc (injured), Mitchell Swepson, David Warner.