Irfan Pathan is confident that India captain Rohit Sharma, who is making a return from an injury, will soon find his form as the Men in Blue get ready to take on Sri Lanka from Tuesday in a three-match ODI series. The India skipper has not exactly struggled for runs but has also not been in his best form. In the 2022 T20 World Cup, Rohit consistently failed to give India strong starts.
He is now set to return to action in the ODI series against Sri Lanka after suffering a thumb injury last month against Bangladesh.
Pathan feels finding form will be a big challenge for Rohit but the batter is well capable of getting back to his best.
“Coming back from injury is never easy, and the biggest challenge would be for Rohit Sharma to come back into form. Which is important for a leader. Look, Rohit Sharma as a white ball cricketer for India has played tremendously well over the years and he has to continue this form and make his legacy even better. Fitness will be a challenge along with his return to form, but I have full confidence that he will be able to overcome these challenges fully,” Pathan said on Star Sports show ‘Follow the Blues’.
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“It is important to win the series, whatever series we play. The bilateral series or if you play the home or away series, it is important to win your confidence as well. But the aim would be the 2023 World Cup which is happening in India this October. So keeping the World Cup in mind, we need to focus on the team combination and select the 11 players accordingly. I expect team India to field only those players these 20 matches who will be playing the 2023 World Cup so that everyone gets enough time to prepare themselves and this preparation for the World Cup starts with the India vs Sri Lanka series,” he said.
India squad for ODIs: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya (VC), Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umran Malik, Arshdeep Singh.
Catch all the action of the 1st ODI of the India-Sri Lanka series, 10th January, 1.30 PM onwards, LIVE & Exclusive on the Star Sports Network and Disney+ Hotstar
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