Rohit Sharma Explains Why Virat Kohli Wasn’t Picked For Warm-up Match Against Bangladesh

India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to bat against Bangladesh in their ICC Men’s T20 World Cup warm-up match at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York on Saturday while also confirming that Virat Kohli missed out on a spot in the team for the only practice game before the showpiece event. The match provides India with an excellent opportunity to practice in conditions similar to those in which they will play three league games against Ireland, Pakistan, and the United States.

Coming off a scratchy series defeat to the USA, Najmul Hossain Shanto’s side will be desperate to put the pieces of a winning plan together, while it’s a vital, sole warm-up hitout for an India side yearning to lift the T20 World Cup trophy on June 29. 

Speaking at the time of toss, Rohit explained the reason behind Virat’s absence while revealing that everyone else remained available. He said: “We will bat. Not for any particular reason, conditions here look a bit challenging. Virat has just arrived yesterday, he’s going to miss out, the rest are all available and we’ll see how to use them. We arrived quite early, so the body clock has adjusted, we just have to see how well we can adjust to these conditions.”

Bangladesh skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto said, “We would have bowled, we’ll have to adjust the conditions and I want to know how the bowlers do. The boys have enjoyed themselves so far here, we are going to play with 13 players – Taskin and Mustafizur have been rested.”

India playing XI: Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Suryakumar Yadav, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal.

Bangladesh playing XI: Litton Das, Soumya Sarkar, Najmul Hossain Shanto(c), Towhid Hridoy, Shakib Al Hasan, Mahmudullah, Jaker Ali(w), Mahedi Hasan, Rishad Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Shoriful Islam, Tanzid Hasan, Tanzim Hasan Sakib, Tanvir Islam.

With ANI inputs