The 2024 season of the Indian Premier League is unique in the sense that it is taking place just before the 2024 T20 World Cup and will play a major role in the selection of India’s 15-member squad for the multinational tournament scheduled to take place in the USA and West Indies
The Strike Rate Conundrum
One of the factors that will play a major role in selection would be the strike rate of players as it was a highly debated topic during the last T20 World Cup in Australia where the Indian batters especially the openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul were criticized for playing defensively in the powerplay something which came to haunt India in the Semi Final against England
Following this captain Rohit Sharma made a deliberate effort to play aggressively in the powerplay which was evident during the ODI World Cup last year and the right-hander has continued to play with the same approach for Mumbai Indians in IPL as well.
The Competition
Having said that other than Rohit players like Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul, and Ravindra Jadeja all of whom are a vital part of India’s setup in white ball cricket have found it difficult as far as playing at a high strike rate is concerned. On the other hand players like Shivam Dube and Rinku Singh have been scoring runs at a high strike rate consistently which has made former Indian fast bowler Venkatesh Prasad root for their selection in the squad
The Support
Prasad took to social media platform X to express his opinion “Shivam Dube for his striking ability against spinners, Surya for being the best T20 international batter and Rinku Singh for his exceptional finishing ability. It will be great if India finds a way to have these 3 in the 11 in the T20 WC. With Virat and Rohit, this will leave spot for just a keeper batsman. Interesting to see how it pans out,” he wrote.