As 2024 ICC T20 World Cup starts, the captain of India Rohit Sharma hasn’t been able to settle down yet on the final playing eleven for the team even after their comprehensive win against Bangladesh in a practice match. One thing that is evident from yesterday’s game is Yashasvi Jaiswal will probably not be in the line-up for campaign opener v Ireland on June 5 at Nassau County International Cricket Stadium.
However, despite talks about having right-left combination at the top of batting order, Sanju Samson was preferr ahead of Jaiswal. In essence, this implies that Kohli—missing out on Bangladesh warm-up due to his late arrival at New York—with Rohit Sharma will open Indian innings.
Former Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan has consistently rejected Kohli opening with Rohit in The World Cup despite his superb IPL performance in 2024. According to him speaking on Star Sports, Jaiswal should not be droppedrom the Playing XI as India requires more bowling options.
“With selected team there can be two combinations. In one combination you can play with six bowlers including Axar Patel which would strengthen your batting line up further. On the other hand, you could field four frontline bowlers and expect Shivam Dube and Hardik Pandya to bowl. Another option for Team India is a young player who bowls in nets but hasn’t bowled in matches – Yashasvi Jaiswal. Shivam Dube also mentioned during IPL that he has been regularly bowling in nets preparing to bowl one or two overs at World Cup,” said Pathan.
Pathan went on emphasizing more about Hardik Pandya’s contribution as a bowler.
“If Hardik can give you the option of bowling three to four overs then we are largely out of this trouble. Our other batsmen such as Rohit, Virat or Suryakumar Yadav could not bowl, making us little handicapped. If possible, this will greatly benefit the team if any of these players could bowl,” said Pathan.
“We talk about Australia, but even England has as many as three all-rounders among their top seven including Moeen Ali, Liam Livingstone and Will Jacks. It’s always better to have more bowling options; and yes, in this scenario, we are definitely handicapped,” added Pathan.
However, India is still engage in a debate over Ireland match’s ideal playing XI and the strategy of bowling for the entire team. Everyone from fans to experts alike is curious to see India deal with such challenges on their way to finally ending their ICC trophy drought by clinching T20 World Cup title.
