Former England captain Mike Atherton, ahead of India’s all-important game against New Zealand on October 31, has come forward and advised skipper Virat Kohli to stick with their opening partnership of KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma instead of making fundamental changes to the squad.
Cricket pundits and former cricketers have called for changes in the team post India's heaving drubbing against arch-rivals Pakistan in the first game of the ICC T20 World Cup.
Star off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, in an exclusive chat with Aaj Tak, had explained the blueprint of how India can win their virtual semi-final contest against New Zealand in the ICC T20 World Cup on Sunday.
Ahead of the crucial fixture against the Kiwis, Bhajji had called for changes in the top-order, asking Ishan Kishan to open with Rohit Sharma.
“It was interesting to me. In India’s warm-up game against England, they rested Rohit. He obviously is a given. And they had Ishan Kishan and KL Rahul at the top of the order. I don’t know whether it was a shoot off or not. Ishan outscored KL Rahul but what was interesting was that KL was faster out of the blocks in the Powerplay in that game. Ishan Kishan eventually got going and caught up,” Atherton said on Sky Cricket.
Atherton further said it's too early to write off India from the T20 World Cup.
“But if you think of how Rohit plays he sometimes takes a few balls to get going. I think they are doing the good thing by going with KL and Rohit at the top of the order. I think that is the right thing. And you can’t write off India after one bad game.”
