Skipper Rohit Sharma is pleased to see Jasprit Bumrah and Harshal Patel back in the squad, which is at full strength for the T20I series against Australia. Sharma wants the team to play with a lot of “security” before the T20 World Cup in Australia next month. Rohit praised the versatility in the current lineup, pointing to a solid combination of pace and spin, even if India had to play without several of its important players during the Asia Cup, notably in the bowling department. Axar Patel’s presence, particularly in the absence of Ravindra Jadeja, gives the squad confidence, according to Rohit.
“We needed an all-rounder because Jadeja was a big miss for us. Axar was always part of our plans. It was always going to be between Axar and Jadeja because they do pretty much similar things. So since Jadeja is not available, there was no other option for us. We were quite clear that Axar is the guy who can do the job for us. And recently if you saw in West Indies, he batted brilliantly and won the game single-handedly with his batting. He is also a three-phase bowler – bowls in the powerplay, middle overs and maybe we can bowl an over in the death as well, like the 17-18th over if you want to use that bigger boundary, you can do that.”
