Rohit Sharma Provides Update On His T20 World Cup 2024 Participation: Indian captain Rohit Sharma was around the journalists on the eve of the boxing day test between India and South Africa in Centurian. While most of the queries hurled at Rohit were related to the upcoming India vs South Africa Test series, one of the journalists indirectly asked the Indian captain whether or not the fans are going to see him play in the T20 World Cup 2024.
As soon as the press conference began on Monday evening, Rohit Sharma hinted that only Indian cricket-related questions be asked and not the IPL ones as the conference is organised by the BCCI.
Interestingly, post the ICC World Cup 2023 defeat, a lot has been going on around Indian cricket, and in fact around Rohit Sharma as well. There were a lot of queries about his presence in the shorter formats. While some reports indicated that the BCCI is looking to have the senior guys in the team for the T20 World Cup 2024, some reports categorically denied all such previous reports. To add to this, Rohit was removed as the leader of his IPL franchise, Mumbai Indians, just ahead of the IPL 2024.
To begin the press conference, a journalist asked where he sees himself as a batter in two years, to which the Indian captain replied, “I will play whatever cricket is there in front of me.”
The follow-up question was more direct and blunt for Rohit Sharma, who seemingly wanted to have an escape route for this. The journalist enquired, “Do you seniors, you, Virat (Kohli) feel desperation to play T20 World Cup?”
“Desperation cricket khelne ke liye sabko hai (We are all desperate to play cricket). Everyone wants to do well whatever chances they get,” he said.
Rohit Sharma’s Cryptic Reply on his T20 World Cup 2024 Presence
Rohit Sharma knew what was being asked of him and what the journalists were trying to extract so he immediately jokingly replied everyone would get to know pretty soon.
“I know what you are trying to ask. You will get an answer, you will, for certain,” said Rohit as he tried to suppress his grin.
It is worth noting that nothing about Rohit Sharma’s participation, and even Virat Kohli’s, can be said at this point. Though the BCCI wants them to play the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 in the West Indies and the USA, one will have to wait for the IPL to unfold and see where the two batters stand.
The upcoming Tata IPL 2024 will be a key tournament for Rohit Sharma as well as Virat Kohli. The two have been sidelined from the T20Is for close to a year now. They last played a T20I game in November last year and England and since then the two have focused on the other two formats of the game.
Rohit Sharma talks about challenges in South Africa
Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma also spoke about the challenges of playing test cricket in South Africa. As a batter, Rohit Sharma reckons South Africa is the hardest place to bat.
“That’s a challenge. When we went to Australia, England, and South Africa it was a challenge. For them also, who are coming for the first time, it’ll be a challenge. The bowlers dominate here a lot. The lateral movement the seamers get. The wickets get difficult later on as the cracks open and invariable bounce. It’ll be nice for all of us to put our hands up for the challenge,” said Rohit Sharma.
He further asserted that the team would go for the win and etch their names in history by defeating South Africa for the first time in test cricket.
“Very important Test series. We have never won a series here. It’s a big opportunity for us. We came close the last two times. That gives us a lot of excitement and encouragement to do our best. Our seamers have done well in Australia, England and South Africa. The seamers have actually pull their weight in. Shami will be a big miss.”
The India vs South Africa 1st Test is set to begin on December 26. The game will be held at the SuperSport Park in the Centurian, starting at 1:30 PM IST.
For more details head to ICC’s official website.