“There’s enough depth in the squad. If we talk about batsmen — Rohit Sharma, Shubhman Gill, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant — there’s a proper band of proper batsmen who can bat well in England,” he added.
Further elaborating, Parthiv, who powered Gujarat to their maiden Ranji Trophy title, cited the example of KL Rahul who isn’t the first choice opener in Tests, and despite that, the squad looks well balanced to take on New Zealand in the WTC final.
“Everyone scored runs, and there is a spare batsman in KL Rahul. Imagine KL Rahul not finding a space in the Test squad, so how strong this squad could be. Then there is Axar Patel, who was probably the Man of the Match in a lot of matches against England,” said Parthiv.
“He came in place of Ravindra Jadeja and never felt like Ravindra Jadeja was out. Now Ravindra Jadeja and Ashwin will be back, so I think this squad looks really strong,” he added.
The WTC final gets underway on June 18 and will continue till June 22 with June 23 kept as a reserve day. While it was initially set to be played at the Lord’s, the ICC decided to move it to Southampton with an eye on the COVID-19 situation across the globe.
Team India’s preparation will start on May 25 when they enter the bio-bubble created for them here in India itself. The 8-day bubble will be followed by another 10-day quarantine in the UK before the boys take on the Kiwis in Southampton.
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