Harsha Bhogle Revealed The Real Reason Why Rishabh Pant Opened The Innings: The new era management of Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid sent everyone in a state of frenzy when they sent out swashbuckling batsman Rishabh Pant as an opener alongside Rohit Sharma the second ODI against West Indies on Wednesday in Ahmedabad.
Even though KL Rahul was back in the line-up, after missing the first ODI due to personal reasons, the management decided against opening with Rahul who replaced Ishan Kishan, who had opened in the first match in absence of Shikhar Dhawan after he was down with covid-19.
This promotion to Pant took the fans by surprise since Pant had never opened in an of his 91 international innings before today. Pant had, however, batted at the top during the 2016 under-19 World Cup when he smashed 78 runs off 24 balls against Nepal under-19. However, there is a huge difference in doing it at the under-19 level and senior level.
Very interesting that with KL Rahul available, India have chosen to open with Pant. Tells me that there is a move towards looking at Rahul at no 4, where his numbers are good, as a long term option
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) February 9, 2022
Shikhar Dhawan was ruled out due to an injury mid-tournament then and Rahul was promoted at the top. Not as far as last year, in March, Rahul scored a hundred against England in Pune while batting at number 4 when Dhawan and Sharma opened.
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