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Cricket PlayersBatting coach Vikram Rathour reveals why Ishan Kishan opened for India ahead of Rohit Sharma and who made the call
India's batting coach Vikram Rathour, while addressing the press conference, has revealed why and who took the decision to make Ishan Kishan and KL Rahul open and push Rohit Sharma a position below.
Plenty has been read and spoken about India’s decision to send Ishan Kishan to open the innings with KL Rahul in the T20 World Cup match against New Zealand. India included Ishan in their Playing XI in place of the injured Suryakumar Yadav, who complained of back spasm, but the sight of Ishan opening with Rohit Sharma batting at 3 left several fans, experts and former cricketers amazed.
The decision did not work well as Ishan perished for 7 and Rohit was dismissed for a run-a-ball 14 after being dropped off the first ball. On the eve of India’s third match of the tournament against Bangladesh on Tuesday, batting coach Vikram Rathour, while addressing the press conference, has revealed why and who took the decision to make Ishan and Rahul open and push Rohit a position below.
"How things went was Surya had some back spasms the previous night so he was not fit enough to be in the playing 11. So, the person coming in was of course Ishan and Ishan has done really well as an opener in IPL and in the past for the Indian team as well. And about who took the call, it's the whole management who sits together and discusses. And of course, Rohit is part of that group. So he was part of that discussion," Rathour said.
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The batting coach, who has re-applied for the position, added that the decision made sense tactically as Ishan was coming off three consecutive half-centuries in his previous three innings and explained that the idea was to have a left-hand right-hand combination up top for India, since they team had only a limited number of left-handed batters available in the XI.
"It tactically made sense, having a left-hander upfront. We didn't want too many left-handers in the late middle-order with Ishan, Pant and Jadeja. So technically it made sense and he has batted well at the top of the order so that's why the decision was made," the former India batsman pointed out.
