Reports | India to rest Rohit Sharma in the series against Australia

Reports | India to rest Rohit Sharma in the series against Australia

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BCCI

According to a Hindu report, the Indian cricket team might rest Rohit Sharma along with some other key players in the upcoming ODI and T20I series against Australia ahead of the World Cup. India will play two T20Is in February and five ODIs next month against the touring Australia side.

After beating the Australians in both Test and ODI series and getting the better of the Kiwi team in the 50-over format, the Men in Blue are in a good place before the start of the Cricket World Cup on May 30. However, all the probable players of the Indian team will feature for their respective teams during the 12th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) which is scheduled to begin from March 23 and the tournament will conclude just before the world event.

Meanwhile, as per a report published in The Hindu, the national selectors will be looking forward to resting senior batsmen in the team like Rohit Sharma and they would also want to rotate pacers. The team management will be trying to find out the back-up options before the world event which is going to take place in England and Wales in a few month time. As the series against the Kangaroos will be the last international outing for the Indian side before the ICC event, it will be interesting to see if skipper Virat Kohli will find a place or not in the side. However, Rohit is likely to spend some time with his newly-born daughter so will miss the entire series or a portion of it.

The report also suggested that the selection committee headed by MSK Prasad might try out players like KL Rahul and Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane during the five one-day games against Australia while the team management will be looking forward to giving players like Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik more opportunities in the playing XI.

As far as the bowling department is concerned, the Indian team went ahead with Mohammed Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar as the regular pacers in the ODIs and gave Jasprit Bumrah a break. With the IPL starting after the Australia series, the pace trio with Bhuvi, Shami, and Bumrah is likely to be rotated. The two wrist spinner Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav have been playing in the Indian side and the team has a chance to play both of them on rotation against the Australian side in both the T20Is and the ODI matches. 

IPL will begin from March 23 and the franchises have made it clear that they can not allow important Indian players to take rest at least in the first half of the cash-rich league. So, avoiding injury and giving proper rest to the players is going to be the priority for the team management and the selectors.

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