India’s ICC World Cup squad: Rohit Sharma says ‘ideally we would have wanted an off-spinner’ but adds Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel give the best balance | Cricket News

Depth in the batting and six bowling options in the eleven will be India’s formula at the home World Cup, where they look to end their ICC title drought. What it meant was that they could not draft an off-spinner or a right-arm tweaker into the 15-member squad announced the chairman of national selection committee Ajit Agarkar. With concerns over the fitness of their pacers, they had to pick four apart from Hardik Pandya for the tournament that begins on October 5.The squad was expected to remain more or less the same as one picked for the Asia Cup, though. Rohit Sharma and Agarkar had said there was still scope for a few changes, triggering speculation of surprise moves. But all that were put to the bin on Tuesday.From the team that is currently featuring in Asia Cup, the selectors have omitted Prasidh Krishna, Tilak Varma and Sanju Samson.
It is understood that the three will remain as reserves along with R Ashwin, who will be a cover for the three spinners – Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav. The two-time ODI world champions, though, could make changes to the squad till September 27.
Biggest challenge
With KL Rahul clearing the fitness test over the weekend at the National Cricket Academy, there was no scope for last-minute surprises like it has been the case with India’s World Cup-bound squads over the last four years. The 15-member squad includes five batsmen, two wicketkeepers, one all-rounder, four pacers and three spinners (two of them all-rounders), and has the right balance. Eleven can bat, eight could bowl.

Here’s the #TeamIndia squad for the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 🙌#CWC23 pic.twitter.com/EX7Njg2Tcv
— BCCI (@BCCI) September 5, 2023
But the biggest challenge for captain Rohit and the team-management will be to find the same balance in the playing eleven. With their top five being one-dimensional and all four fast bowlers mostly being No 10 and 11s (apart from Shardul Thakur occasionally), Rohit admitted that his team will have to strike a compromise on fielding the best attack at times.

“You need both bowling depth and batting depth. We need to create that depth and we found that it was lacking in our team for the last few years. When we talk about depth in batting, that No.9, No.8 positions become crucial. In the first game here we saw that we fell short in the backend. We want tail-enders to contribute too. Another 10-15 runs in that game would have made a difference. That is the margin between winning and losing. We have spoken to them about that role in the World Cup,” he said.
In the ongoing Asia Cup, India showed enough evidence of it, where they included Shardul Thakur ahead of Mohammed Shami in their opening fixture against Pakan. all looks of it, this is set to continue at the World Cup as well, even if it means India may have to bench a bowler who is capable of finishing his quota of 10 overs in favour of Thakur, the most expensive among the five, and has an economy rate of 6.17 in ODIs.

! 🇮🇳 👏#CWC23 | #TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/Forro8kCYL
— BCCI (@BCCI) September 5, 2023
Fix or break?
“When you’re trying to fix something, you might end up breaking it,” Rohit said of India’s pace pack. “You have to be mindful of what you’re doing in trying to use resources as best as you can. When you have six bowlers, they might miss out on some overs. You have to see what suits the bowlers, and what situation the game is in. Even the spinners may not be able to complete their quota. This is the best we can do with balance and depth. We have three all-rounders in the team, four bowlers and six batters. We have thought about it a lot and named this squad. This is the best combination for us.” Rohit explained.Most Read
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Unlike the T20 World Cup, where India have struggled to get back from setbacks, the ODI World Cup format, where each team gets to play nine matches, allows them the time to revisit their strategy and rectify flaws. In a 10-team tournament, which is much like the IPL, Rohit knows a thing or two about getting the house in order and undergoing a course correction, should the team get off to a slow start.
Breathing space
India start their campaign against Australia in Chennai on October 8 before facing Afghanan, Pakan, Bangladesh, New Zealand, England, Sri Lanka, South Africa and the Netherlands in the group stages. “It’s different, especially the format, where you play nine league games, semis and finals, that is 11 games. We played that format in the World Cup in 2019, and there’s always a chance for you to make a comeback. We saw last time around, how England made a comeback to the semis and the finals after losing their way early. It gives you more time to think about strategy and what you’re going to execute as a team. T20 format is different where you have less time. We had to beat Pakan and SA to qualify for the semifinals. Here, even if you don’t start well, you have the time to make a comeback. It does give you a little more breathing space,” Rohit said.

Squad: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya (Vice-captain), Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav#TeamIndia | #CWC23
— BCCI (@BCCI) September 5, 2023
Having found the balance, the only hole is the absence of an off-spinner, a regular in the last two World Cup at home. In 2011, India had both R Ashwin and Harbhajan Singh, apart from part-timers Sachin Tendulkar and Suresh Raina. But India never had at least one spinner who bowls right-handed—leg-spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan played a couple of games in 1987. But having not played Ashwin since 2022 and Washington Sundar discarded, Agarkar felt it would be the fast-bowlers who would be needed most. “Clearly there were discussions as both Jadeja and Axar take the ball away. We would have ideally wanted an off spinner but this gives us the best balance. Pacers bowl more in ODIs anyway. We’re happy with the bowlers we have,” he said.

With three of their players Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul and Jasprit Burmah coming from long injury-layoffs, India would be wary of their form. Rahul, who suffered a groin niggle while recovering from a thigh injury he sustained during the IPL, is set to join the team in Colombo on Tuesday. With Kishan currently in good form, scoring four successive half-centuries in as many matches, it would be interesting to see if Rahul takes his place in the eleven. “KL was part of the camp in Bangalore. He looked good. He batted for almost the entire duration of 50 overs in Bengaluru. He’s an important player for us. Kishan played well recently, plays well at the top and KL’s record in ODIs is brilliant. We have two good options. We can pick and choose between the two who will fight for a spot in the team,” Agarkar said.