T20 World Cup: 'The reason for picking 4 spinners is...'

India captain Rohit Sharma said the team management was crystal clear about picking as many as four spinners for the T20 World Cup in the West Indies and United States, asserting that IPL had very little role to play in deciding the 15-member squad.

India have picked four spinners and three pacers in the squad, a move that has attracted diverse views. Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal are the two wrist spinners while Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel are the all-rounders, who bowl left-arm spin.

"I don't want to go into details on this. I definitely wanted four spinners. We have played a lot of cricket there. The match starts at 10 am in the morning. There is technical aspect involved in this," Rohit said in a press conference on Thursday.

"The reason for picking four spinners is something I won't reveal now. I definitely wanted four spinners. With two of them being all-rounders and two attacking options, it gives you balance. Based on opposition, we can decide who to play," added the skipper.

The India squad was picked on Tuesday and Rohit said a lot of attention was given to the team's needs in the middle overs. Shivam Dube was picked ahead of Rinku Singh and that too divided opinions.

"We have got to understand what the pitches will be like and the opposition composition. One thing we really looked at is our middle overs hitting. Our top order hitting has been alright, it has not been bad.

"There are other options there as well. We picked a guy based on his performance in the IPL and few games he played for India. There is no guarantee what our playing eleven will look like," he said referring to Dube.

The India captain added that the he had figured out 70 to 80 per cent of the squad before the IPL.

"You sort of make the playing eleven in your mind and work around it. A lot of preparations and talks and guys playing games happen during the IPL, lot of them are playing the format for a while now

"The talk of what are final 15 is going to be started much before IPL. It is just few spots we had to look in the IPL.

"In IPL performances changes everyday. Anyone will come and score a hundred or to take five wickets. We knew 70-80 percent of our squad (before the IPL)," he said.

• IPL 2024