Indian captain Rohit Sharma has justified the rapid changes in the opening combination in T20Is. In the absence of KL Rahul, Indian team management has tried several opening combinations. The latest entrant to the list is Suryakumar Yadav, who has been promoted to open alongside Rohit in the ongoing five-T20I series against West Indies.
“It was quite pleasing for us, the way we played first game. We stuck to our plans and executed it really well. It's another opportunity for us and we are looking to repeat what we did in the first one. We want the guys to be able to bat anywhere and don't want them to be batting in specific positions. We want the guys to be flexible, there are two ways to look at it depending on certain players,” Rohit said after winning the toss.
Before Suryakumar, wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant opened the innings in two T20Is against England. In the first T20I on the Caribbean soil, Suryakumar tried his trademark unorthodox shots during the fielding restrictions. He succeeded a few times but got out for a 16-ball 24 in the fifth over.
In the second T20I, Suryakumar got out in the third over after scoring just 11 runs. Before getting promoted as opener, Suryakumar scored a hundred in the England series.
Meanwhile, Ishan Kishan has been warming the benches after the Ireland series. He was tried as opener in the home T20I series against South Africa as well.
It will be interesting to see who opens the innings for India in the upcoming Asia Cup 2022 when Rahul and Virat Kohli return to the side.
