Vice-captain Rohit Sharma insists it’s too early to predict India’s batting order for T20 World Cup; skipper Virat Kohli, however, says the squad is more or less sorted
Rohit Sharma (left) is congratulated by skipper Virat Kohli after the former’s 50 against England at Ahmedabad on Saturday. Pic/AFP
The final combination of 15 players for this year’s T20 World Cup may not drastically change but there could be few tweaks for the ICC event, which India will host in October-November.
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“There’s still a long time to go for the [T20] World Cup, so it’s early days to talk about how our batting will look like. We have to sit and analyse what suits the team the most,” India’s vice-captain Rohit Sharma said during a virtual media interaction after the fifth T20I, which India won by 36 runs at the Narendra Modi Stadium here on Saturday.
New opening combination
Before the T20I series against England, Virat Kohli had stressed that KL Rahul and Rohit were first choice openers but after Rahul’s four successive failures, pacer T Natarajan replaced him in the final T20I. Kohli opened the innings with Rohit as the duo put on 94 off just 56 balls to give India a flying start on Saturday.
“Today [Saturday] was a tactical move because we wanted to play an extra bowler and leave one batsman out. Unfortunately, it was KL, which was very tough,” Rohit said.
“KL has been one of our key players in the limited-over format. Looking at current form, the team management decided to go with the best XI. Having said that, it doesn’t send any signal that KL will not be considered or anything like that. This was just for one particular game. Things might change as we go closer to the World Cup,” the India vice-captain clarified. “There is still a good amount of time left with IPL in between. And then, I’m hearing, there will be a few T20s as well before the [T20] World Cup so [there’s] good enough time for us to judge what will be the best possible XI for us,” Rohit reckoned.
In his post-match presentation talk Kohli, however, sang a different tune when he said: “The T20 World Cup squad is more or less sorted out.”
He also believed that the Indian batting runs deep. “[We] totally outplayed the opposition. It’s testimony to our batting depth,” Kohli said.
Surya impresses Kohli
The India captain was impressed with Mumbai’s Suryakumar Yadav, who started his international career with a bang, scoring 89 runs in two innings. “I was particularly pleased with Surya,” he said.
Praising another Mumbai Ranji star—Shardul Thakur—Kohli said: “The confidence level of Thakur after that series in Australia is sky high. With the ball, his strength is his belief...proper cricketer...giving us runs with the bat as well.”
94
No. of runs put on by Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli for the opening wicket v England on Saturday
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