"Haven’t met anyone" - Rohit Sharma rubbishes reports on meeting Ajit Agarkar and Rahul Dravid for T20 World Cup selection
Indian captain Rohit Sharma dismissed reports claiming his recent meeting with head coach Rahul Dravid and chief selector Ajit Agarkar over T20 World Cup team selection.
The mega event begins in the West Indies and U.S.A. on June 1 with the teams expected to announce their final squad by the end of April or the start of May. The reports even suggested discussions around Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma opening the batting for India in the tournament.
Speaking on the Club Prairie Fire Podcast, Rohit even detailed where Agarkar and Dravid are currently at.
"Haven’t met anyone [On reports on meeting with coach and selector to finalize squad]. Ajit Agarkar is somewhere in Dubai playing golf and Rahul bhai (Dravid) is in Bangalore watching his kid play and he was in Mumbai to have him play on a red soil wicket.
"So we haven’t met. In today’s day and age, unless you hear it from me or Rahul and Ajit or someone from BCCI coming and talking in front of the camera, everything is fake," said Rohit.
Rohit Sharma had not played T20Is since the end of the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia until the home series against Afghanistan earlier this year. However, the 36-year-old has been confirmed as the Indian captain for the showpiece event.
"It will be hard to convince MSD for sure to come to the West Indies" - Rohit Sharma
Rohit Sharma was asked if veteran wicketkeeper-batters, MS Dhoni and Dinesh Karthik, could be in contention for the T20 World Cup. The Indian skipper cheekily said that convincing the former would be a near improbable task.
At 42 and playing in his 17th IPL season, Dhoni has been in terrific batting form with a strike rate of 236 in six games. Meanwhile, Karthik has rediscovered his best after a dismal 2023 season, scoring 226 runs at an average of over 75 and a strike rate of 205.54.
"Quite impressed especially with Dinesh (Karthik), the way he batted a couple of nights back, and Dhoni as well, he came to play four balls and made a huge impact with those 20-22 runs and that was eventually the difference in the end.
"It will be hard to convince MSD for sure to come to the West Indies (for the World Cup), he is sick and tired, but he is coming to the U.S. though to do something else. He is into golf now so he is coming to play golf I guess. DK will be easy to convince I guess," said Rohit.
MS Dhoni last played for India in the 2019 ODI World Cup. Karthik was also part of the side that suffered a semi-final defeat in the 2022 T20 World Cup. The former CSK captain has been playing through a knee issue this season, while Karthik has announced the ongoing IPL as the last of his career.