Mumbai: India vice-captain Rohit Sharma firmly believes that for World Cup selection, the players should be judged on the basis of ‘performance and form’ in the last four years and not on how they perform during the IPL.
World Cup will begin days after conclusion of IPL May 12.
The national selectors are keeping a close eye on the IPL for picking the 15-member Indian squad for the mega-event.
“With their inputs, the selectors will keep an eye on what is happening with those guys in IPL although I feel IPL should not be the criteria for team selection,” he said.
“They have played enough international matches to see where each individual stands. You can’t select a team for the 50-over format from a 20-over event, it’s my personal opinion. IPL is a different ball game. It’s franchise cricket and yes, form matters a lot,” said Rohit.
“In the last four years we have played enough One Day International matches, enough T20 cricket. That should be enough for guys to understand these are the players that we want,” he added.
IPL, ICC World Cup, Mumbai Indians, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli
“Every time we play IPL, there is some big event right after happening – a big Test series or big one-day series. It does help also. 35-plus or 40 guys will probably need some rest. I was talking to Jasprit (Bumrah) the other day. He needs to play a lot of matches and bowl a lot to be match fit than be at home. I also, as a batter, need to play,” Rohit said.
Rohit, who is a certainty in the World Cup squad as an opener, also said that the specific spot that needs to be filled would be dictated by conditions that are likely to prevail in England during the World Cup, commencing May 30.
“I think we are pretty much settled. A few spots are there which everyone knows about. It all depends on what captain, coach and selectors think about the combination, whether we need to go with an extra middle order batsman, extra opener, extra seamer or spinner. Conditions in England will matter a lot,” he said.
“I know how it works with the captain. The preference of the captain is very important in terms of that extra player he wants in the squad. I think Virat and (Indian team’s head coach) Ravi Shastri have to decide what exactly the combination that they want or what extra player or where is that extra cushion they are looking for. That is something that will matter the most,” he added.
PTI