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Indian skipper Rohit Sharma and chief selector Ajit Agarkar spoke to the media on Thursday (May 2) held at BCCI headquarters. It came after the squad for T20 World Cup was announced a couple of days back.
On being asked about who will partner Jasprit Bumrah between Mohammed Siraj or Arshdeep Singh in the ICC event, Sharma jokingly said:
"5 tareek ko match hain abhi bolke kya karunga [The match is on 5th, there is no point discussing about it now.] (1:31:00)
Rohit India will begin their T20 World Cup 2024 campaign against Ireland on Wednesday (June 5) in New York. Then, the Men in Blue will play league matches against Pakistan and United States at the same venue and take on Canada in Florida.
Rohit Sharma further mentioned that New York will have a fresh pitch to offer, and they will select their XI accordingly. The 37-year-old added that the surface in West Indies will be crucial for selecting the team combination.
"We have never played in New York, so don't really know how the pitch will behave," Sharma added. "Even in West Indies, first I'll have a look at the pitch before we can select a combination."
Rohit Sharma opens up on opening combination for 2024 T20 World Cup
The Indian T20I captain also touched upon the opening slot for the much-awaited ICC event. It is evident that along with Rohit Sharma, the two probable openers will be Yashasvi Jaiswal and Virat Kohli.
Without conceding anything, Sharma told the media that they are yet to finalize their opening slot:
"All options will be considered for the opening slot. We haven't decided yet, there is no guarantee and we will go there to the West Indies and depending on the conditions we will decide the playing XI."
In 16 Test innings, Jaiswal and Sharma have added 980 runs together at an average of 61.25. However, they could add only 5 &18 in two T20Is against Afghanistan earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Virat Kohli has been a standout performer as an opener in the ongoing IPL, scoring over 500 runs. It will be interesting to see which pair opens for the Indian team in 2024 T20 World Cup.
