Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary Jay Shah has declared that Rohit Sharma will lead the Indian team at this summer's T20 World Cup in USA and West Indies.
While speaking at the unveiling of the Niranjan Shah Stadium in Rajkot on Wednesday evening, the BCCI official said - "In 2023, even though we didn’t win the World Cup, we won hearts. I want to promise you that under Rohit’s captaincy, in Barbados in 2024, we will succeed".
Rohit Sharma returned to the shortest format in international cricket only this January, in the home series against Afghanistan, after he and Virat Kohli both had not played T20Is since India's exit from the World Cup in 2022. He captained India in the series that was the team's final outing in the format before the World Cup in June.
The tournament kicks off on 1 June with the opening match to be played between co-hosts USA and Canada at the Grand Prairie Cricket Stadium in Dallas, Texas. The final is scheduled for 29 June while India will face Pakistan at the 34,000-seater Eisenhower Park stadium in Nassau County, New York on 9 June.
India, the 2007 T20 World Cup winners, are slotted in Group A alongside Pakistan, USA, Canada and Ireland. They will be playing all of their group matches in the USA. India kick off their campaign against Ireland on June 5 in New York, before facing Pakistan on June 9.
They will play their third game in New York against the USA on June 12, before facing off against Canada in Miami on June 15. All of India’s matches have a start time of 8:30 pm IST. The semifinals will be played on June 26 and 27 in Guyana and Trinidad respectively, before the final in Barbados on June 29.
This will be the first World Cup event to be hosted in the USA while this will be the second time West Indies will be hosting the Men's T20 World Cup after doing so last in 2010. The two countries were awarded joint hosting rights for the competition in 2021.
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