Taking a dig at India's T20 World Cup 2024 squad after the conclusion of the IPL, former Pakistan skipper Wasim Akram has said that at least this time, Indian players will not make an excuse of being tired during the upcoming mega event.
The final between KKR and SRH didn’t include a single Indian player who is going to the T20 World Cup which will be played in the United States and West Indies from June 1. Only Rinku Singh was a part of KKR but he is going to the World Cup as a travelling reserve.
Talking to Sportskeeda Cricket, Akram joked: "At least this time, Indian players will not make an excuse of being tired during the mega event."
"Well, now at least none of them will have to say that they are tired. They were thinking ahead, what is the point of reaching the final, India is more important, we will play with the country. But it could be a blessing in disguise for India," he said.
"We discussed in the previous show that I was worried that they might be tired, and they will be tired, no doubt. Even America is not their road. I think Pakistan's first match is Dallas if I remember. Now they will go and play there, one or two practice matches. It will be okay, I suppose. It is T20, the boys will recover, nowadays fitness levels are very high.”
The first batch of Indian players, who did not play in IPL playoffs, left for the USA on Saturday evening including their captain Rohit Sharma and others.
Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Shivam Dube, Mohammed Siraj, Axar Patel and Shubman Gill left India on Saturday night for the upcoming T20 World Cup.
Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Siraj.
Reserves: Shubman Gill, Rinku Singh, Khaleel Ahmed and Avesh Khan.
India's Schedule for T20 World Cup
India vs Ireland — June 5 in New York
India vs Pakistan —June 9 in New York
India vs USA — June 12 in New York
India vs Canada — June 15 in Lauderhill
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