Selecting Team India’s T20 World Cup squad wouldn’t have been easy, and now it seems like fielding an XI might just be equally tough. With four potential openers in the 15-member team, it’ll be a painstaking task for the Indian management to finalize their opening pair for the IND vs IRE match on June 5. Right now, they have Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, and Sanju Samson to select from.
Rohit Sharma set as first-choice opener
All are great options and have opened the inning recently in either the India vs Bangladesh warm-up or the IPL 2024 season. But only two will get the chance to start the proceedings. Most will have Rohit Sharma locked in as their No. 1 opener. Form or not, as the skipper, he’ll definitely start, and for him, the best spot to bat is as an opener.
But not all agree with this. Matthew Hayden believes that Rohit should bat in the middle. Whether or not Hayden’s argument is right, it’s highly unlikely that the Indian management will shake things up without trying a position change prior. So one slot is gone. One left, and three players will now fight for it.
Sanju Samson to warm the bench after warm-up
Following his poor outing against Bangladesh, Samson’s already weak chances to make the starting XI have taken a further hit. However, that failure isn’t the reason why he won’t play or open in the IND vs IRE match. You see, Samson is primarily a top-order batter, and he played all of his 15 innings in the IPL at 3.
He has never opened the inning in T20Is, and his record in the IPL while opening isn’t the best (559 runs at 25.4 while striking at 135 in the IPL). He may give the keeping option, but he’s not going to replace Rohit, and his numbers don’t hold up against the other two.
T20 World Cup
Yashasvi Jaiswal or Virat Kohli?
The choice Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma will have to make is: go for experience and reliability, or go for youthful exuberance and aggression. On one hand, you have Kohli, who knows how to build an inning, can play out challenging powerplay bowling, and keeps the scoreboard ticking. On the other hand, there is Jaiswal, who starts with one intention: to smash the ball.
Although the southpaw can bat long, his main approach would be to give Team India a quick start in not only the IND vs IRE match but all T20 World Cup games. A thing that works in both Kohli’s and Jaiswal’s favor is the former’s success at both the No. 2 and 3 spots. The former Indian skipper has found most success batting at one down. Although his lone T20I century has come while opening, he’s at his best at 3.
So, Jaiswal will open alongside Rohit not only because of his intent or benefit of being left-handed but also due to Kohli’s versatility to bat down the order.
India’s Probable XI vs Ireland
Rohit Sharma (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya (vc), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh.
