India captain Rohit Sharma lavished praise on Virat Kohli and has asked his team to step up for their marquee clash against arch-rivals Pakistan in the ongoing T20 World Cup. Enthusiasm among fans is at a high as they prepare to witness one of the oldest rivalries appear on the same field after almost eight months. India and Pakistan will step into New York’s Nassau County International Cricket Stadium to add a new chapter to their historic rivalry. In the previous edition of the tournament, India needed magic from Kohli’s bat to seal a thrilling win at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground in 2022.
This time, Rohit doesn’t want to rely on individual brilliance and wants the entire team to step up and contribute to the game.
“I don’t want to rely on one or two individuals to win us the game. I think all 11 of us need to contribute. Of course, there are key players who are going to play key roles for us but I think everyone needs to chip in whatever they can, however they can in their best possible way,” he said in the pre-match press conference.
India have had a fair share of experience playing at Nassau County. The Rohit-led side pulled off a dominant win against Bangladesh in the warm-up game. The Men in Blue went on to put a clinical performance in their campaign opener against Ireland.
Stalwart batter Kohli missed the warm-up game and scored just a run in five deliveries while opening alongside Rohit. Rohit feels Kohli has enough training to perform and possesses experience which can’t be beaten by anything.
“[Virat] didn’t play the Bangladesh [warm-up] game but he’s had enough training under his belt before this game…the kind of experience that he has, playing all over the world, playing in big tournaments, nothing can beat that,” Rohit added.
India T20 WC squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.
Reserves: Shubman Gill, Rinku Singh, Khaleel Ahmed, Avesh Khan
Pakistan T20 WC squad: Babar Azam (c), Abrar Ahmed, Azam Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Rizwan, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Usman Khan.
