Skipper Rohit Sharma, ahead of India’s T20I series vs West Indies, said that he wants the players to not focus too much on the upcoming IPL season for now and keep the colour ‘Blue’ in mind. The team plays Kieron Pollard and co for a three-match T20I series starting on Wednesday at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata. 

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Several India stars bagged big bucks in the IPL mega-auctions. Ishan Kishan was bought at Rs 15.25 crore, Shreyas Iyer at Rs 12.25 crore and Deepak Chahar for Rs 14 crore. 

Sharma, however, said that the players’ IPL prices won’t be up for consideration when the management decides what’s best for India’s T20 team going into this year’s World Cup in Australia.

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“It was understood that the guys will go through some emotions, some ups and downs,” the Indian skipper said. 

He added that now after the auctions, the players will need to focus on their national duties and the team management has made clear to them.

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“Yesterday, we had a great meeting with everyone and asked them to focus on the colour ‘Blue’ for the next two weeks which is very, very important. Whatever has happened has happened and whichever team they are going to play, that’s for the future. Right now, the focus of next two weeks is to play for India. All these guys are professionals…nothing else matters,” he added. 

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Rohit Sharma, who will be joined by the likes of Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav in Mumbai colours, said that the players’ positions in their IPL teams won’t dictate the slots in the national one.

“Honestly, there is no consideration of IPL here. We are not going to look at where they are going to bat in IPL. What matters is where they are going to bat for Team India, as simple as that,” Sharma said.