Indian captain Rohit Sharma is gearing up to lead the Men in Blue in the three-match Test series against New Zealand from October 16 onwards. He has led the Indian team by an example in all three formats and now looks to take the team into the World Test championship final for the third time.
India are going into the New Zealand Tests with an evenly spread team in all departments. While Mohammed Shami is still not fit to make it to the squad, the Indian team has three pacers: Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, and Akash Deep. Apart from 15 squad members, India have also named an all-pace attack in the reserves. Captain Rohit Sharma stressed on the need to build strength in the pace department alongside the batting unit with one eye on the Australia Test series at the end of the year.
"When it comes to batting, there are a lot of options. We want to create the same in bowling as well. We want to create bench strength where tomorrow if anything happens to anyone, we are not worried," Rohit said on the eve of the first Test against New Zealand.
"We don't want to heavily reliant on a few individuals. That is not the right thing to do. We want to look at the future and try and make sure we get the right guys in as well," he added.
He stated that the bowlers have been included in the team to give them a chance if a need arises. Notably, Mohammed Shami is yet to recover after his ankle surgery and Yash Dayal, who was picked for the Bangladesh series has a shoulder injury. India have picked Mayank Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana and Nitish Kumar Reddy as their reserves.
"So tomorrow, if we feel like they are ready to take that role (replacing an injured pacer), they should be ready for it. They have obviously played a few games before we made this announcement.
"They have played the Duleep Trophy, and Irani Trophy as well. So, we just want to make sure that they are monitored quite well. Their workloads have been taken care of," said Rohit.
He said that the players have shown their worth in the short period. "In the short period of time, they have shown they have ability as well. We want to keep them with the team and see whether they will be ready for international cricket or not.
"Especially Test cricket because Test cricket is a different ball game compared to white ball cricket. We want to see what they can offer us," he noted.
He added that there can be a need to fast-track someone and the players are talented enough. "Sometimes you have to fast-track someone. That is only in the betterment of Indian cricket. We want to create guys where even if there are injuries, we have someone to quickly step in and take that role. Nitish (Reddy) and Harshit (Rana) both are talented individuals.
"In the future, they are going to provide a lot of stability. So, it's always nice to just have them around and see their mindset," said Rohit.
