‘Virat Kohli And Yashasvi Jaiswal To Open’: Matthew Hayden Suggests New Position For Rohit Sharma For T20 World Cup 2024
New Delhi: After Virat Kohli’s 92 runs knock against Punjab Kings sparked debates for his batting order in the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024 which will be played in USA and West Indies later this year in June.
In IPL Kohli play as an opener for his franchise Royal Challengers Bengaluru and many cricketers suggested Kohli to open with Rohit Sharma in the marquee event but Hayden was not in favor of Rohit and Kohli as openers. He reckoned that Kohli should open with Yashavi Jaiswal and Suryakumar Yadav to play at number three. He said that the Indian skipper should play at number four.
“If you have to make a change in that combination, I would be very happy…if you would tell me if I could open with Kohli and Jaiswal, I would have said absolutely yes. Then I would slot Suryakumar Yadav at 3 and Rohit at No.4. And that top four, in my opinion, is the right combination. The reason I say that is Virat is a master of the first six. And once the power hitting comes into play, there are other great options including Rohit. Look at his figures at No. 4, they are superb. Those are better than his opening numbers,” Hayden added.
In 151 international T20 outings for India Rohit scored 3974 runs, he has batted outside the opening position in 27 innings, scoring 481 runs with five fifties. He played eight innings at number four where he scored 188 runs at a strike rate of 122.87 with two fifties.
India Squad For T20 World Cup: Rohit Sharma (C), Hardik Pandya (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Siraj.
Reserves: Shubman Gill, Rinku Singh, Khaleel Ahmed, Avesh Khan.