The Indian cricket team is all set to kickstart their World Cup campaign with a match against arch-rivals Pakistan on 24th October in Dubai. Ahead of the titanic clash between the arch-rivals, there is a lot of hullabaloo on who would be India’s opening batsmen in the T20 World Cup. Resting all the speculations, the Indian skipper Virat Kohli has finally confirmed the openers for the high-voltage tournament.
During the T20I series against England earlier this year, Virat Kohli had said that he would open for India in the T20 WC alongside Rohit Sharma. However, KL Rahul was seen in a red-hot form in the just-concluded edition of the Indian Premier League, making Kohli change his decision.
In the 13 games he played for Punjab Kings, KL Rahul amassed 626 runs. On the other hand, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma weren’t really at their best in this year’s IPL. While, Virat scored 405 runs off 15 games he played for Royal Challengers Bangalore, on the other hand, Rohit Sharma scored 381 runs off the 13 games he played for Mumbai Indians.
These numbers and the sensational form of KL Rahul, made Virat Kohli and Indian team management to rethink about their decision. During the toss session of Indi’a first warm-up match against England, Virat Kohli announced the major update. He also admitted that he had earlier planned to open the innings alongwith Rohit Sharma but KL Rahul’s heroics made him change his decision. He said:
Things were different before IPL, now it’s difficult to look beyond KL Rahul at the top of the order. Rohit is a no-brainer. World-class player, he’s been solid up front. I will be batting at 3. That’s the only news I can give to start off,”
Further, Kohli also talked about the combination of Indian team for their opening game against arch-rivals Pakistan is pretty much sorted. He said:
“Adapatability is what matters. People play different roles in their IPL teams. It’s about adapting quickly to this team now, who plays where is what matters. We are pretty sorted in terms of how we are going to start in the first game,”
