3 Best Opening Combination For India In T20Is: The Indian team has been rich with high-quality batters throughout its history. Be it any format, the Indian batters have dominated the batting charts in world cricket for decades.
Talking about the current time, Team India are a country that has a surplus of opening options. There is a spate of top-order batters who are dominating domestic cricket and IPL cricket, making headaches for the national selectors.
Here are 3 best opening pairs for India in T20I moving forward after IPL 2023:
Shubman Gill-Ishan Kishan
Shubman Gill is in the form of his life. Over the past 6 months, he’s smoked centuries in all three formats and even a double century in ODI cricket. He’s now in superb touch in the IPL 2023 too: at the time of writing, he has whacked 533 runs at an average of 48 and strike rate of 147 with 5 fifties.
Shubman is the present and the future.
The last time India played in T20, it was the pair of Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan that took the field at the top with Rohit Sharma and Rahul rested to prepare for ODIs and Test cricket.
Kishan smashed a double century in an ODI in Bangladesh last year, but after that, his international form fell off. The left-hander, though, has been doing well in the IPL 2023 for Mumbai Indians: 366 runs in 12 innings, strike rate of 143.
In all likelihood, Gill and Kishan will be India’s T20 openers after the IPL 2023 as well because Rahul is injured and Rohit Sharma is likely to be rested from T20 to be fit for ODIs and Tests.
Shubman Gill-Yashasvi Jaiswal
Yashasvi Jaiswal has been in scintillating form since last year. He dominated domestic cricket superbly and has unlocked a new level in the IPL: the left-handed RR opener is currently the second-highest IPL 2023 run-scorer with 575 runs in 13 innings with strike rate of 166. He’s notched up 4 fifties and a century this season so far.
What Jaiswal does is play attacking, aggressive cricket right from the outset of his innings, allowing his batting partner to settle down first, something which Gill likes to do. Because of his bumper form in the IPL, Jaiswal is in line to get a maiden India call-up soon in the shortest format.
Shubman Gill- KL Rahul
Lest we forget Rahul, the senior India opener still is 31 of age and has plenty of cricket in him, including in the shortest format where he’s seen a future for the Lucknow Super Giants. While Rahul is currently recovering from a thigh injury, he remains one of the classiest openers in the world. And once recovered from his injury, Rahul could use up some T20 as a mode to make a comeback in the national side ahead of the ODI World Cup. Rahul, though, needs to step up in the important fixtures.
