Varun Chakravarthy and Kuldeep Yadav are the only specialist spinners in the ranks, whrreas Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, and Washington Sundar are all capable in other departments too.
Subsequently, the Men in Blue have only three pace bowling options, in the form of Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, and Harshit Rana, with Hardik Pandya playing the supporting act in the middle overs.
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“There are two spinners, and the other three are all-rounders, so I am not looking at them as five spinners, those three guys can bat and can bowl also.
“In the rest of the teams, the fast bowlers are all-rounders, so they say that they have taken six fast bowlers, which is good, but we play to our strength (spin),” Rohit told reporters when asked about the spin heavy composition of the side.
Jasprit Bumrah’s injury means that there is added pressure on Mohammed Shami, who is yet to operate at full throttle since coming back from his ankle injury. The Men in Blue, however, have shown a recent tendency to bat deep and that corroborates the presence of multiple spin-bowling all-rounders in the setup.
“Jadeja, Axar, Washy, give us a different dimension to our squad and add a lot to this team and give us a lot of depth, that is why we wanted to try and get the players who can have two skills rather than one skill.”
There has been plenty of rain in Dubai in the last couple of days and India will have to overcome overcast conditions in their tournament opener against Bangladesh on Thursday.
First Published: Feb 20, 2025 11:45 AM IST
