India captain Rohit Sharma denied media reports that claimed that he had a special chat with selection committee chairman Ajit Agarkar and head coach Rahul Dravid earlier in the month over T20 World Cup 2024 selection, urging everyone not to believe speculation and rumours. Rohit laughed off speculation about him and Virat Kohli opening the batting in the World Cup, starting June 1 in the USA and the West Indies.
Rohit Sharma joked about the speculation about team selection in the media, saying that Ajit Agarkar had been keeping himself occupied by playing golf in Dubai and head coach Rahul Dravid was working with his sons, giving them cricket training on a red soil pitch in Mumbai.
“I haven’t met anyone. Ajit Agarkar is somewhere in Dubai, playing Golf. Rahul Dravid is watching his kid play in Bengaluru. He was in Mumbai, actually. He was. He got him to play on a red soil wicket here at CCI (Cricket Club of India). That’s about it,” Rohit Sharma told Adam Gilchrist and Michael Vaughan in the latest episode of Club Praire Fire Podcast.
“We haven’t met, to be honest. In today’s day and age, unless you hear it from either myself, Rahul himself, Ajit himself, or someone from the BCCI coming and talking in front of the camera, everything is fake,” he added.
A section of the media claimed on Wednesday that Rohit Sharma met with Ajit Agarkar and Rahul Dravid earlier in April to discuss several important selection matters, including the need for Hardik Pandya to bowl consistently in IPL 2024. The reports also claimed that Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma would open in the T20 World Cup for India.
Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma jokingly said that he would want to have Rishabh Pant in the squad, responding to Michael Vaughan’s interesting question. The former England captain asked Rohit if there was one player whom he would like to have in the squad just for the sake of entertainment.
“All these guys are quite crazy to be honest. If anyone, who makes me laugh, then it’s Rishabh Pant. He is one crazy guy. I have been watching him since he was a kid. I was quite disappointed when he missed a year-and-a-half due to that accident. He is quite witty. The kind of stuff he does behind the stumps makes you laugh. He has got his own way of doing this, this is what I like about it,” Rohit said.
India are scheduled to announce their T20 World Cup squad in the last week of April as teams are required to list their 15-member squads a month before the start of the tournament.