A week ago, senior members of the India cricket team, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, returned to the T20I setup. However, that’s when the question arose: Where should they bat? Kohli’s favorite spot is number 3, but he opens the batting for his IPL franchise, RCB. Meanwhile, Rohit being the skipper, his spot as India’s designated opener for the T20 World Cup 2024 is fixed.
So are those spots the best for Team India to succeed? That is a tricky question that may not even have a right answer. Given how Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal have played in the last few months, one can easily pick the duo as India’s opener. But where will Rohit bat at 3? And if Rohit bats at 3, where will Kohli play?
This question is exactly what former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra answered in his Cricket Chaupaal. On their batting spots, the cricketer-turned-commentator said:
“Parthiv Patel said Virat and Rohit should open. I think the idea isn’t wrong; they should. You want Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma to play in the powerplay; both of them are India cricket’s heartbeat. That allows you to play Surya at 3, otherwise, you can’t play him there as that is Kohli’s spot”.
Chopra gave further reasoning behind the idea of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma opening the batting:
“Let’s say you open with Yashasvi, Kohli at 3, Surya at 4, Rinku at 5, and Hardik at 6, then who’ll keep? So what you’ll think is to make Rohit and Virat open.”
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