Indian National Cricket team skipper Virat Kohli has revealed IPL performances will not influence the World Cup squad selection which will commence from May 30 in England and Wales. Meanwhile, the men in blues will look to seal the last two-three spots left for the World Cup in the upcoming five-match series against Australia.
The upcoming series commences from March 2 (Saturday) at Hyderabad and India will be desperate to bounce back after a 2-0 snub in the T20I series. Virat Kohli completely admitted that IPL would have no role to play in the World Cup selection saying that it will be a radical analysis.
“No, I don’t see the IPL having any influence on World Cup selection. I think that will be a very, very radical sort of analysis,” Kohli said on the eve of the first ODI.
Meanwhile, speculations were going around that the fate of Dinesh Karthik and Rishabh Pant will depend on the upcoming IPL. But Virat Kohli feels one good IPL won’t make much of a difference for any World Cup hopeful. The talismanic run-scorer also noted that need to be entirely clear what team they want for the World Cup ahead of the IPL.
“We need to have a solid team. Before we head into the IPL, we need to be absolutely clear of what team we want for the World Cup. I don’t see anything changing on how the IPL goes for any of the players.
“If one or two players do not have a good IPL season, it doesn’t mean that they are out of the picture for the World Cup. Those things are not going to matter,” Kohli added.
Talking about the remaining slots, Virat Kohli seemed interested to give young wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant some more time to grab his spots. However, he also noted that would not happen at the cost of any bowler considering the field restrictions into account.
India will begin their campaign in the ICC World Cup on June 5 against South Africa.