T20 World Cup: 'Understand The Game Against Pakistan, But No Point Of Talking About It Everytime' Says Rohit Sharma

The Men in Blue have already reached Australia and played two warm-up matches.

The ICC T20 World Cup is almost there as the qualifiers will start on Sunday where Sri Lanka will be taking on Namibia. The much-awaited game will take place on October 23 where India will face Pakistan at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. 

The Men in Blue have already reached Australia and played two warm-up matches. The Indian team skipper Rohit Sharma spoke to the media as part of ICC's Captains' Day in Melbourne. 

"We understand the game against Pakistan, but there is no point of talking about it everytime and creating that pressure within yourselves. Whenever we meet against the Pakistan players, we talk about how they are, how the families are. We just talk about what is going on, how is life and what new car they have bought or they are about to buy," said Rohit.

The All-India Senior Selection Committee declared Mohammed Shami as the replacement for the injured Jasprit Bumrah.  Shardul Thakur and Mohammed Siraj have been added as backups.

"Injuries are part and parcel of the sport, there is nothing much that can be done about it. If you play these many games, injuries are bound to happen. That is why our focus over the last year was to create bench strength and wherever we got the opportunity, we gave younger guys a go. As far as Shami goes, he tested positive for COVID-19 2-3 weeks back and he was there at his farm, he then went to NCA and did his rehab there. He is there in Brisbane right now," said the Indian skipper.

"The Indian team will reach Brisbane from Perth, we have a practice session tomorrow. He will practice with the team, whatever we have heard about Shami till now, it has been positive. He has had good 3-4 bowling sessions. But again, when it comes to injuries, we have tried really hard to manage our players in the last 1-2 years. But it is unfortunate and you cannot do much about it. This is the reason we wanted to create bench strength," he added.

"He is a quality bowler, unfortunately injuries can happen. You cannot do much about it, we talked to a lot of specialists about his injury but no good response came from them. World Cup is important, but his career is more important to us. He is just 27-28 years old and there is a lot of cricket ahead of him. We cannot do risk like that, and the specialists also advised the game. We will miss him, there is no doubt about it”. Rohit stated when asked about Bumrah.

The Men in Blue skipper also talked about Suryakumar Yadav and said, “He is in good form, he is batting well. I hope he continues to bat in that fashion because it is important for us that he bats well in the middle order. He plays fearlessly, he uses his skill set. I hope he becomes the X-factor but I want every player in our team to be the X-factor. I hope he continues his good form in the World Cup also.”