Virat’s strike-rate was struck off!

India captain Rohit Sharma (right) and chief selector Ajit Agarkar arrive for a press conference at the Wankhede yesterday. Pic/Atul Kamble

India's chief selector Ajit Agarkar revealed on Thursday that there were no concerns whatsoever within the selection panel over Virat Kohli's strike-rate when they got down to pick the team for next month's T20 World Cup. "Experience matters a lot, there was never any talk [among the selectors] regarding Virat's strike-rate. There's no point over-thinking," Agarkar said at a press conference at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday.

While opening the innings for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in this IPL, Kohli has amassed 500 runs in 10 games at a strike-rate 147.49. He was India's top run-getter (296 in six games) at the 2022 T20 World Cup in UAE.

"We have not been discussing his [Kohli] strike-rate. There's a difference between IPL and international cricket. You need experience. We have got enough balance and power in the team. You try and take the positives from what is happening in the IPL. The pressure of a World Cup is different," remarked Agarkar.

Though MI's Rohit (315 runs in 10 IPL games), Kohli and RR's Yashasvi Jaiswal (249 runs in nine games) are opening the innings for their respective IPL teams, Rohit made it clear that the Indian team management has not decided who will open in the tournament that will be held in the US and West Indies.

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India begin their campaign against Ireland on June 5 at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York followed by the marquee clash against Pakistan on June 9 at the same venue. India will then play USA and Canada on June 12 and 15 respectively.

When asked why hard-hitting batsman Rinku Singh was not considered, Agarkar admitted it was a tough call: "It's probably the toughest thing that we have had to discuss, frankly. He [Rinku] has done nothing wrong, nor has Shubman Gill for that matter. Again, it's just the [team] combination. Like Rohit said, we are not quite sure what conditions we'll get, so we wanted to have enough options."

When mid-day asked the India captain how he will use Hardik Pandya and Shivam Dube as bowling options, Rohit gave the impression that their chief role will be with the bat: "The bowlers with some kind of skill sets have good chances of success in this format. If we need Shivam to bowl a few overs, he will bowl a few overs. Same with Hardik. He's been bowling regularly in the IPL whenever required. He has played all [IPL] games, so fitness-wise, there's no issue."

On what caused the exclusion of KL Rahul, the chief selector said: "KL is a terrific player. We were looking at someone who bats in the middle [order]. At the moment, he [KL] is batting at the top. Sanju [Samson], we like to believe has the ability to come down the order, if need be. Rishabh [Pant] is batting down the order for DC [Delhi Capitals]. It's about the slots we needed [to fill]. We felt these two are better and have spent more time down the order which might be needed at the World Cup."

One of the main aspects of criticism over the latest selection is the fact that there are four spinners - Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal - in the squad.

Rohit responded to that, saying, "I don't want to go too much into detail on it. I definitely wanted four spinners. We have played a lot of cricket there [WI]. We know what the conditions are like. The matches start at 10 or 10.30 in the morning, so there is a bit of a technical aspect involved in this. Maybe in the first press conference I do in the West Indies, I'll give more details on this. I'm not going to say it in public now, but I'll definitely say it there. I wanted four spinners for sure," Rohit added.