India National Cricket Team captain Rohit Sharma has revealed who will open the innings alongside him in the upcoming three-match ODI series against the Sri Lanka National Cricket Team between Ishan Kishan and Shubman Gill.
India recently defeated Sri Lanka 2-1 in the three match T20I series and now the teams are ready to lock horns in a three match ODI series. The 50-over assignments will be played on January 10, 12 and 15 in Guwahati, Kolkata and Trivandrum respectively.
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37-year-old left-handed lead-off batsman Shikhar Dhawan was dropped from the ODI squad for the series against Sri Lanka following his run of poor performances, which opened the door for Kishan and Gill.
In a pre-match press conference, Rohit Sharma revealed that Gill will be his opening partner and stated that it is only fair to give him a longer run at the top after his stellar performance with the bat.
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“Both openers have done very well. But looking at how both have endured I think it’s fair that we give Gill a chance to get a fair run because in the last games Gill got a lot of runs too,” he said.
The 35-year-old was also full of praise for wicketkeeper-batter Kishan. He said:
“I’m not going to take anything from Ishan. He’s been great to us. He got a double hundred and I know what it takes to get a double hundred, it’s a great achievement. But to be fair and fair to the guys who have done really well before, we need to give those guys enough chances as well.”
It’s a pity we can’t play Ishan – Rohit Sharma
The India National Cricket Team captain further admitted that Kishan will be unhappy to miss but said he will remain in the scheme of things. Rohit explained:
“It’s a shame we can’t play Ishan, but looking at how things have turned out for us over the last 8-9 months, looking at how the ODIs have gone for us, it’s fair to give Gill that. walk and he has done extremely well in that position.
“We’ll definitely try and keep Ishan in the mix and see how it works out for us as we play a lot of games.”
In 2022, Gill opened for India in 12 ODIs, hitting 638 runs at an average of 70.88 and a strike rate of 102.57. Kishan, on the other hand, impressed last year with a remarkable double century in the third ODI of the series against Bangladesh.
Also Read: IND vs SL: “Nothing major, just a stiffness” – Rohit Sharma talks about Jasprit Bumrah being banned from ODIs in Sri Lanka
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