MUMBAI: The next edition of the T20 Asia Cup in the United Arab Emirates, which starts on August 27 and ends on September 11, will see India miss out on the pacer Jasprit Bumrahabsent due to a back injury.
However, gone are the days when India’s paced bowling attack looked weak when their strike bowler was injured. The emergence of one impressive fast bowler after another has seen Indian bowling stocks richer than ever.
With India playing cricket non-stop and players at risk of injury or Covid-19 infection, captain Rohit Sharma pointed out that he and coach Rahul Dravid had discussed the “creation of a bench”, given the amount of cricket the team plays, weighing in on the injury factor.
“Bumrah, (Mohammed) Shami and all these guys won’t be with the Indian team forever so you have to try and prepare the other guys. Me and Rahul bhai talked about how we are going to build our bench strength because that it’s going to be very crucial considering the amount of cricket we play, considering the injury factors and everything. We never want to be a team that relies on one or two individuals, we want to be a team where everyone can contribute and help the team win on their We want to be that kind of team and that’s why we want to give young people as many opportunities as possible and of course you have senior players around them. can be of great help, Rohit said here on Wednesday.
Stats released by Cricinfo suggest that 48 players showed up for India’s men’s team in 2021, while in 2022 the number is 39 so far. Avesh KhanArshdeep Singh, mohamed sirajPrasidh Krishna and Shardul Thakur are among the many rapids that have impressed.
With the 2022 T20 World Cup at Australia now just two months away, Rohit said: “There are still about two and a half months left for the T20 World Cup. Before that we have the Asian Cup and two home series against Australia and South Africa. South. So 80-90% of your squad is set, of course there could be three or four changes or not at all depending on the conditions. From now on we have played in India and will play in the Emirates United Arab Emirates, so the conditions in Australia will be We have to check what suits our team in Australia,” he said on the sidelines of a collection launch hosted by Adidas.
As India prepare to face arch-rivals Pakistan twice in the league – and possibly three times if both teams make it to the final – at the upcoming Asian Cup in the United Arab Emirates, it There’s a lot of excitement around these matchups.
“The Asian Cup is coming after a long time, but we played Pakistan last year in Dubai, where obviously the result was not in our direction. But the Asian Cup is different now. The he team is playing differently and preparing differently, so a lot of things have changed since then. But for us we have to assess the conditions, keep in mind that we’ll be playing over 40 degrees. We have to assess all of these factors and prepare accordingly.”
Rohit claimed his team was focused on process, rather than which team they would play.
“My thought has always been that we are not going to focus on the opposition, but we will continue to play our game. We played against the West Indies, England and in both cases we did not think about who was our opponent, but we focused on things we had to do as a team and what we had to achieve. Similarly, in the Asian Cup, we will focus on what to achieve as a team and will not think not who we’re up against – whether it’s Pakistan, Bangladesh or Sri Lanka,” he stressed.
