India captain Rohit Sharma wants his players to try different things in the six upcoming T20Is against Australia and South Africa. Rohit has said that the squad for the two series was picked at the same time, before the T20 World Cup, to send a message to the group that players don’t need to worry about selection. Instead, they should focus on stepping out of their comfort zone and be ready with answers to every possible question before the mega event.
Notably, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Selection Committee picked the squads for the Australia T20I series, the South Africa T20I series, and the T20 World Cup a few days ago. Almost the same faces feature in all three squads with a couple of changes here and there. The management will be giving rest to the likes of Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Arshdeep Singh over the six games.
"I wanted to bring security in the team, that is why we announced the team for both the series before the World Cup (Australia and South Africa). In Asia Cup also we more less had the same team," PTI quoted Rohit saying ahead of the series opener against Australia.
"In these six games, we want to keep trying what we can achieve with different styles. It is all about going out and trying to find ways of exploring ourselves but there is no limit to trying new things. You can extend yourself in so many directions to achieve so many things for the team."
"We will keep encouraging people to be more expressive. For example, for someone who doesn't play a reverse sweep, can he play that and see if he can do it right? Someone can hit down the ground, things you are not comfortable doing, you do that and see what happens. When you go into the World Cup you should have all these answers. For bowlers, they can try opening the spell with a yorker or a bouncer," said the skipper.
The 35-year-old also made it clear that the team will continue with their aggressive batting approach but there is a Plan B if things go south. "We will continue to play like that. That is something we spoke about quite clearly at the start of my (captaincy tenure) and everyone is comfortable with that. At the same time we know our second line of defence if we are in trouble. We spend a lot of time talking about these things," he said.
"Guys are very clear if we are 10 for three how we need to bat. If we are 50 for no loss, how do we need to bat? These have been discussed at length, it is just about executing now."
