In the first T20I against England at Ahmedabad, India decided to go in with Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul at the top order. At the toss, captain Virat Kohli said that they were resting Rohit Sharma for a couple of games.
The decision backfired badly as India’s top three of Dhawan, Rahul and Virat Kohli scored only 5 runs with Mark Wood, Jofra Archer and Adil Rashid picking early wickets.
On the eve of the game, when asked Kohli had said India’s preferred openers are Rahul and Rohit and that Dhawan would play only if one of the two were rested or had a niggle.
"I don't think so (that both Dhawan and Rahul can be fitted in the playing XI). If Rohit plays it is quite simple. KL and Rohit have been consistently performing for us at the top and those two will start for us. In case of a situation where either Rohit takes rest or KL has a niggle, (then) Shikhi comes back as third opener. Rahul and Rohit will start," said Kohli while speaking to the media on Thursday, on the eve of the first T20 International.
Rohit had scored 65 and 60 not out in the last two T20 Internationals he played back in January-February 2020.
The decision understandably had quite a few people surprised, especially since Rohit had been in good touch during the Tests as well.
India XI: KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli(c), Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant(w), Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal
England XI: Jason Roy, Jos Buttler(w), Dawid Malan, Jonny Bairstow, Eoin Morgan(c), Ben Stokes, Sam Curran, Jofra Archer, Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood
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