June 13 (Punjab Khabarnama) : Despite qualifying for the Super 8 stage and defeating USA on Wednesday, India have plenty of things to worry about in their ongoing T20 World Cup campaign. Currently, their batting department, especially their opening pair, has been under-performing, and the team is having to rely on their potent pace attack.
Against USA during India’s 111-run chase, opener Rohit Sharma departed for three off six balls. Meanwhile, Virat Kohli, who hasn’t found his footing in this tournament, was dismissed for a golden duck. They had to rely on Suryakumar Yadav and Shivam Dube in the run chase, who took them past the finish line.
Rohit hasn’t been in good form. He started off the tournament on a good note with a half-century, but hasn’t been able to build on that. Meanwhile, Kohli has registered scores of 1 (5), 4 (3) and 0 (1).
Brian Lara backs Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli
Many fans have been calling for the selection of left-handed opener Yashasvi Jaiswal with Rohit, and to send Kohli back to his original no. 3 position.
Meanwhile, West Indies legend Brian Lara feels that Rahul Dravid should stick to his opening pair of Rohit and Kohli, due to their impressive resume.
“Definitely, India had the option to play a left-right opening partnership. They went with two great players, two guys who’ve done a great job for India with the bat for their individual franchise as well in terms of the captain Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. I think they’ve got to stick with it as you just said if you do make changes on top, Virat Kohli has to come in the order a little bit lower and that’s going to upset things there,” he said.
“I believe that the combination India is having and India has to back the two of them. At some point in time, they’re going to come good with conditions, the batting conditions in the USA were not the very best. I don’t believe you start making changes especially if you’re winning,” he added.
India defeated USA by seven wickets in New York. Chasing 111, India reached 111/3 in 18.2 overs, courtesy of Suryakumar (50*) and Shivam Dube (31*). Initially, USa posted 110/8 in 20 overs as Arshdeep Singh and Hardik Pandya returned with figures of 4/9 and 2/14 respectively.
