Indian skipper Rohit Sharma will be opening the batting alongside his senior pro Virat Kohli in the first game of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup against Ireland on Wednesday, June 5 in New York. The combination is probably an after-effect of the IPL season Virat Kohli had for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) scoring 741 runs and winning the Orange Cap but it meant that Yashasvi Jaiswal, the young left-hander, who has done well for India in the last year or so in T20Is and Tests had to warm the bench.
This will be the first time that Rohit and Kohli will be opening together for India in three years. It was a T20I match against England in March 2021 when both Rohit and Kohli came out to open for India. It was the series decider and batting first, India put on a score of 224 runs riding on the opening partnership of 94 runs between the two. The partnership came off just 54 balls as both Rohit and Kohli were aggressive and played with positive intent at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. India eventually won that game by 36 runs.
Now, 39 months later, the duo as reunited at the top and would hope to keep the same tempo, even though the surface at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York may not allow the same. The pitches at the new venue have uneven bounce and are very slow in nature. They haven't been batting friendly with the teams batting first scoring 77 and 96 in the two matches so far.
Even though India will hope and fancy their chance to chase down those 97 runs to open their account, it won't be easy. It took 16.2 overs for South Africa to get to the target of 78 runs against Sri Lanka a couple of days ago and both Rohit and Kohli will need to apply themselves to help India chase down that target.
