India’s 1000th ODI will see a new opener in Ishan Kishan when the left-handed pocket dynamo comes out with Rohit Sharma at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Motera against the West Indies to kick off the three-match series today in a closed-door contest.
“Ishan is the only option, he will open,” India’s new white-ball captain Rohit Sharma said during a virtual interaction on Saturday.
Ishan will open
Two openers in the squad—in-form Shikhar Dhawan and Ruturaj Gaikwad—are in isolation with middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer after the three tested positive for Covid-19.
Another opener, Mayank Agarwal was also not available as he was in quarantine. “Mayank was added to the squad, but he is still in isolation because he came late. He is not available as he is in quarantine, so Ishan will open,” said Rohit.
This is the first series where Rohit has taken over the captaincy baton from Virat Kohli and he aims to take the legacy forward.
“When Virat was captaining I was the vice-captain. I just have to take it from where it was left,” he said.
Rohit stressed there won’t be much tampering with the template that India have been following in recent times. Therefore, the six batsmen, five bowlers formula may continue with two bowlers expected to lend depth to the batting and a batter chipping in with a few overs.
“We want to continue the same template. There’s nothing that I need to come and change drastically. I just have to take it forward,” Rohit said.
The return of ‘Kulcha’—Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal—will have to wait although India may play two frontline spinners. “We want to give them an opportunity [together], but it can only happen over a course of time, Kuldeep needs to play a lot of games to get his rhythm [back],” Rohit reckoned. Experienced Chahal, who was part of the team in South Africa, is likely to be preferred over Ravi Bishnoi in the spin attack with Washington Sundar, who is also a useful batter and a gun fielder.
Prasidh over Avesh
Prasidh Krishna may get the nod ahead of Avesh Khan to share the new ball with Mohammed Siraj while Deepak Chahar will be the third seamer, whose maiden ODI fifty in South Africa nearly won the game for India.
Deepak Hooda could provide the sixth bowling option while shoring up the middle-order in the absence of Shreyas Iyer.
Rohit’s Mumbai Indians teammate Kieron Pollard will lead the already cock-a-hoop Caribbeans after their T20 series win against England at home, but the longer version of the game at the biggest cricket stadium in the world will be a different ball game, especially in the prevailing weather conditions.
The difference in day and night temperature here is nearly nine degrees Celsius and that would make chasing under lights difficult.
