Right ahead of T20 World Cup in Australia which is slated to start from October 16, India skipper Rohit Sharma has finally cleared his stance on the burning debate about who will be seen opening the innings for the Men In Blue in the marquee tournament.
Ahead of India-Australia T20 series which is scheduled to kick start from September 20, Rohit in a pre-match press conference said,"Virat Kohli is our third opener and he will have to open in some of the games but K L Rahul will open for us at the T20 World Cup. KL's performances often go unnoticed. He is a very important player for us. I want to clear one thing. We are clear with what we want. There is no confusion. We are very clear what KL brings to the table. He is a match winner. His presence at the top is very crucial".
“It is nice to have options. You want flexibility in the World Cup. You want your players to be in best shape. Batting in every position. When we do something new, it is not permanent. We understand quality of all players. It is an option for us. Since we have not taken a third opener, he opens for his franchise,” he further added.
Rahul's strike rate has been questioned for sometime now and with Kohli finding form at the Asia Cup, the debate over who should be Rohit's opening partner has intensified.
India squad for ICC T20 World Cup: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh.
Meanwhile, Rohit also talked about India's campaign at the just concluded Asia Cup.
“Except 1st game against Paksitan, we batted first in all four games which is considered challenging. Second innings batting is difficult. We fought well and that was the biggest positive. We never gave up against Sri Lanka and Pakistan. They had good partnerships but we fought. Even when they had a 97-run stand, we kept fighting. At this time, it is easy to give up. But, we debated that one wicket is needed to change the game. In the last over, anything can happen. In the game against Pakistan, they had a good partnership. Fakhar and Iftikhar had a good stand but we did not give up. Nawaz played a good knock. You have to appreciate the opponents. We bowled well in the death. Arshdeep, in particular, showed brilliant composure. It is not easy. This is his first year in international cricket. We were impressed with the batting in the Asia Cup. Some 1-2 performances did not happen but that is ok,” he said in the press conference.
Team security environment
“These six games, I wanted to bring a certain amount of security to the team. Our team in the Asia Cup was going to be the T20 World Cup. that is why the team was announced early. We played a lot of cricket in India and we know the conditions. It is about trying to find more ways of exploring ourselves. When I say we want to try new things, we are doing it. There is no limit. We have encouraged bowlers and batsmen to try something different. Do things that are unexpected. There is no tension for the boys because this is the team heading to the World Cup,” Rohit said.
