‘India captain Rohit Sharma on Wednesday advised young batters aspiring to represent the country and currently playing in Ranji Trophy to keep scoring runs and not worry about selection as opportunities are bound to arise.
India U-19 World Cup-winning skipper Yash Dhull and Mumbai’s Sarfaraz Khan are among those who have scored centuries in the opening round of Ranji Trophy.
“All I can tell them is keep scoring runs and the opportunity will arise as it has for (Hanuma) Vihari and Shreyas Iyer, Shubhman Gill and all those guys, who are part of the test team now,” Rohit said on the eve of the first T20I against Sri Lanka here.
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“A lot of these guys, I know, you got to keep scoring runs, you got to keep your head down and keep doing your job, that is what I can tell them at the moment and that is all we can expect them also to do.
“And if there will be a time the opportunity will arise, pretty sure that they will also be focussing on, getting more and more runs rather than worrying about if I am getting selected for not and things like that,” he added.
Stressing that selection of playing XI depends on a lot of factors, Rohit said that his team will look to do well in the two Tests against Sri Lanka, which will be played next month in Mohali and Bengaluru. “A lot of things depend on what sort of combination we have at the moment in our particular squad and what pitches we are playing on, the opposition, and things like that.
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“So a lot of selection depends on that as well moving forward. But like I clearly said there are only three Test matches. For the two Test matches we have announced the team and there is one Test which will be played in England. We will see about England later.”
According to the skipper, he was happy that players got an opportunity to play the Ranji Trophy.
“All these guys who have got an opportunity to play Ranji Trophy, I am very happy that they at least got to play Ranji Trophy, which is the most critical from their perspective. I hope we see more and more performances in the next two games as well,” he added.
Rohit also said that pacer Mohammed Siraj was available for selection.
