Right ahead of the ODI opener between Men in Blue and Sri Lanka, India skipper Rohit Sharma gave a big statement on his opening partner for the three-match series which will commence from Tuesday (January 10). Rohit confirmed that he will open with Shubman Gill in the three-match series while Ishan Kishan, who recently struck a record breaking double century in the third ODI against Bangladesh, will be left out.
On the eve of the ODI opener, in a pre-match press conference captain Rohit said that he won't be able to play Kishan and want to give Gill a fair run.
"Both openers (Gill and Kishan) have done really well. But looking at how both have gone through, I think it is fair that we give Gill a chance to have a fair run because in the last games Gill got a lot of runs as well. I am not going to take anything from Ishan. He has been wonderful for us. He got a double hundred and I know what it takes to get a double hundred, it is a great achievement. But just to be honest and be fair to the guys who have done really well before that we need to give those guys enough chances as well," Rohit said in the press conference.
"It is unfortunate that we won't be able to play Ishan but looking at how things have panned out for us in the last 8-9 months, looking at how the ODIs have gone through for us, it is fair to give Gill that run and he has done extremely well in that position. We will definitely try out and keep Ishan in the mix and see how things pan out for us as we play lot of games ahead," he further added.
As far as the performances of both the Indian batters are concerned, Gill has scored 638 runs in 12 matches since his return to ODIs, which makes it difficult for the team to ignore his talent. Gill has hammered a ton and four fifties in a total of 12 innings at a stunning average of 70.88 and a strike rate of 102.57. On the other hand, Kishan has amassed 417 runs in a total of seven innings at a handsome average of 59.57 in 2022.
Meanwhile, Rohit also shut down all speculations regarding his future for the Men in Blue in the shortest format of the game. Speaking to reporters in the pre-match conference on the eve of the first T20I against the Islanders, Hitman came up with an affirmative reply when quizzed about his T20I future.
"Firstly, it is not possible to play back-to-back matches. You need to give them (players who play all three formats) enough break. I definitely fall in that as well. We have three T20Is against New Zealand. We will see what happens after IPL. I have not decided to give up the format," the India captain said.
Uncertainty on Surya?
Rohit also made it clear that form is important but so is the format and hence without naming dropped a hint that Shreyas Iyer will make the cut in the final XI.
"Those guys who have performed will get a run. It is as simple as that. Sometimes it's hard when we compare guys performing in different formats. I do understand the form. Form is important and so is the format," Rohit added.
"Look, I think it's a great headache (choice between Surya and Shreyas) to have rather than having no headache. Honestly, we will look at the performance of the guys who have done really well. The problem happens when we start comparing different formats to different formats. ODI is a different format, slightly longer than T20I and we are very clear that the guys who have done well will definitely get the opportunities," the skipper said.
"We are very clear about giving opportunities to the guys who have done really well. That is what is going to happen as we move forward, play these six ODIs. The guys who are doing well will also get a lot of opportunities." For Rohit, all those who have scored runs under difficult circumstances will be rewarded.
“We will have to look at who's done well in the ODI format for us, and in what situation they have done well. They've been under pressure and gone on to score runs. All those things we need to count before we make that call. This is something we're going to do before making that call -- to try and capture everything that has happened in the last eight-nine months,” he concluded
