Shubman Gill Or Ishan Kishan – Who Will Open With Rohit Sharma In 1st ODI vs Sri Lanka? India Captain Reveals Name

Indian skipper Rohit Sharma on Monday made it very clear that Ishan Kishan despite his fastest double hundred in his last ODI will have to wait for his next chance just like Suryakumar Yadav, who is currently world’s No. 1 T20 batter. India will be playing six ODIs in next two weeks against Sri Lanka and New Zealand respectively, starting with first game against the islanders here on Tuesday.

Ishan stunned the cricketing world with world record breaking 131-ball-210 against Bangladesh in Chattogram last month while ‘SKY’ has just scored his 3rd T20I hundred couple of days back in his 43rd innings. But Rohit was clear that Shubman Gill (named on record) and Shreyas Iyer (dropped broad hints) will get a long run in these six games.

“Both openers have done really well. But looking at how both openers have gone through, it’s fair that we give Gill a chance to have a good run,” Rohit said ahead of the first game.

In Gill’s favour, his superb consistency — 687 runs in 13 innings with 57 plus average and 99 plus strike-rate has gone in his favour.

“Gill has got a lot of runs in the last few games, so has Ishan. I am not going to take anything away from him (Ishan). He’s been wonderful for us, got a double hundred. And, I know what it takes to get a double hundred, it is a great achievement,” said Rohit, who is the only batter to have three ODI double hundreds.

“But just to be honest and fair to the guys who have done really well before, we need to give those guys enough chances as well before we make that call.” Terming it unfortunate, Rohit said Ishan would get share of chances as they have 15 ODIs and the Asia Cup lined up before the World Cup in October-November.

“It’s unfortunate that we won’t be able to play Ishan. But looking at how things have panned out for us in the last eight-nine months and how the ODIs have gone through for us, it’s fair to give Gill that run and he’s done extremely well in that position.

But Rohit assured that Ishan remains very much in the mix.

“Yes, Ishan is certainly going to miss out but it is very unfortunate. But that does not rule out anything. We are going to try and keep everyone in the mix and see how it pans out for us as we play a lot of games ahead.”

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