Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra has questioned India’s preparation for the T20 World Cup. With Yashasvi Jaiswal not playing the warm-up match against Bangladesh, there have been suggestions that Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma will open the innings for the team.
Kohli delivered as an opener in the recently concluded IPL for RCB, scoring 741 runs in 15 innings at an average of 61.75 and a strike rate of 154.69.
On the other hand, Rohit Sharma was Mumbai Indians’ top-scorer with 417 runs in 14 matches of IPL 2024 as he scored runs at an average of 32.08 and a strike rate of 150. However, Chopra feels it would have been better if India’s think tank had not decided the opening pair at the 11th hour.
“There are chances of both openers being right-handed. They are your two most experienced players – Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. It seems like Rishabh Pant will be sent at No. 3, Suryakumar Yadav will be at No. 4, and then if Surya gets out, Hardik Pandya will come, and if Pant gets out, Shivam Dube will come,” Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.
“It seems like the team composition will be like this. But I ask a different question. My question is – why are we coming to know about this now? Would it not have been ideal to know earlier that Virat and Rohit are going to open?” the former India opener added.
The renowned commentator observed that India’s batting order is the same as it was in the previous T20 World Cup, barring Shivam Dube replacing KL Rahul.
“When the last World Cup ended, from then till now, to be honest, we are playing almost with the same XI or the batting personnel. Move them a little up and down, leave out KL Rahul and bring Shivam Dube in his place, it’s exactly the same. So we haven’t changed much,” he observed.
Chopra noted that since no senior player played for 18 months after the T20 World Cup 2022, the roles have been left undefined.
“The interesting thing is that the roles that have been changed as well, no one was told that their roles are going to be changed – ‘We are changing but you will come to know about it in the World Cup’. Personally, not ideal at all. The main reason for that is that no senior played for one-and-a-half years after the World Cup ended,” Chopra stated.
India will begin their T20 World Cup campaign against Ireland on June 5th.
