India’s opening combination for the upcoming T20I series against England has been a hot topic of discussion in the last few days. While Rohit Sharma is locked at the top of the order, India could choose to go either with KL Rahul or Shikhar Dhawan as his partner. Both batsmen scored more than 600 runs in the IPL 2020 season, and made their cases for the opening slot.

However, India skipper Virat Kohli confirmed on Thursday that Rahul is their preferred choice to partner Rohit at the top of the order. They are looking at Dhawan as more of a third opening option.

“It’s quite simple, KL and Rohit have been performing at the top of the order for us and those two would start,” Kohli said in a virtual press conference on the eve of the first T20I of the five-match series against England.

“And if Rohit takes rest or Kl has a niggle or something Shikki (Shikhar Dhawan) obviously comes back as a third opener. The starting composition, Rohit and Rahul will start,” he added.

Dhawan and Rahul had opened for India in the last T20I series against Australia as Rohit wasn’t available. However, they have chosen to go with Rohit and Rahul now as they think they are better batsmen than Dhawan in this format.

Kohli also spoke about the inclusion of Suryakumar Yadav, Rahul Tewatia and Ishan Kishan in their T20I squad, and he asserted that they want to play freely in this series.

“We have made additions to the squad who can be X-Factors in the batting lineup. We want to see how they fare in the middle,” Kohli said.

“We want to play free cricket, we have explosive batsmen in the team now. That’s exactly what we are trying to address. This time around you will see players bat more freely. I see us being much more free with our approach from this series onwards,” he added.