India’s opening match of the T20 World Cup 2024 is just a few hours away. India will take on Ireland at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium on June 5. There is a lot of speculation about the Playing XI India will field, given that the team do not have a dearth of options.
Sunil Gavaskar names India playing XI for T20 World Cup opener
Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar made some surprising picks while choosing his preferred India Playing XI against Ireland.
“I don’t really like selecting teams because you can never satisfy everybody they’ll always be somebody’s favorite player who’s not being pick but here is my effort to try and pick the 11 for the game against Ireland. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to open the batting along with Yashasvi Jaiswal at three Surya Kumar Yadav at four Rishabh Pant at five at number six,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports.
“I would have Hardik Pandya number seven would be Ravindra Jadeja number eight mean not necessarily in that batting order. Shivam Dube number nine Kuldeep Yadav number 10 Jaspreet Bumrah and number 11 will be MD Siraj,” he added.
Rohit Sharma-Virat Kohli as openers
As is evident, Gavaskar picked a batting-heavy side with a lot of all-rounders in the team. Interestingly, he accommodated all three openers by selecting Yashasvi Jaiswal at number 3 and picking Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to open.
All-rounders galore, no place for Arshdeep Singh
Moreover, he went with only one specialist spinner in the form of Kuldeep Yadav and two pacers in Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj. Arshdeep Singh, who had a wonderful outing in India’s warm-up match against Bangladesh in missed out from Gavaskar’s XI.
