NEWDELHI,OCT 09:International players turning out for their state teams is always a huge plus and Mumbai are set to benefit as India’s limited-overs deputy Rohit Sharma has made himself available for the Vijay Hazare Trophy knock-out games.“Yes he will…we’ll pick the team on October 10 ,” chief selector Ajit Agarkar told the Times of India on Monday. “ Rohit will play for us in one or two games. The team will be led by Shreyas Iyer, who captained Mumbai in their last two games in the league stage,” a Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) official added. While Rohit looked in fine form during the recently concluded Asia Cup, he is not a part of India’s Test squad for the two-match series against West Indies. As a result, the couple of games in the Vijay Hazare Trophy will provide him with the perfect training ground .Interestingly, Sunil Gavaskar had recently said that MS Dhoni too should play in the tournament as that will help the former India skipper stay in touch with the game as he no longer plays Test cricket. Absolutely (when asked if Dhoni should feature in domestic cricket). Dhoni should be playing domestic cricket and should be playing the four-day games as well because he will help so many of the emerging players from Jharkhand,” Gavaskar told India Today.“In the 50-over game you have limited opportunities but if you play a four-day game and play a long innings it’s great for your stamina, for your legs, for the rhythm that you want in limited-overs cricket,” Gavaskar added.This year Dhoni has aggregated just 189 runs in 9 ODI innings at a paltry average of 27 with a highest score of just 42 and this is impeding India from getting the explosive finishes to the innings, which has come back to bite the team quite over, especially in England.
Rohit Sharma will play Vijay Hazare Trophy to prepare for Windies series.
