Former India player and head coach, Ravi Shastri recently gave his opinion on whether Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma should open the innings for India.
Currently, both these batters are involved in playing the IPL for their respective sides, that is, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians respectively.
RCB has already clobbered Mumbai Indians in their first game of the season.
Kohli made a fine 82* from 49 balls and guided his team to victory while Rohit scored only a solitary run from 10 balls.
Moreover, alongside skipper Faf du Plessis, Kohli stitched together a partnership of 148 runs for the first wicket.
While Rohit may not have been up to the mark in the first game for Mumbai Indians, he nevertheless is at the helm of things for India as a skipper.
Therefore, former West Indies player Ian Bishop asked Shastri whether there is a place for Kohli at the top with Rohit.
Is the opening spot the place for him? There’s a lot of debate about it.
Shastri’s reply to this question was,
That’s always a possibility. But where India will probably look at, is that there is Rohit Sharma, there will probably be another left-hander. It might just get too top-heavy if Rohit and Virat open. But everytime they’ve opened, the partnership has been massive.
Rohit and Kohli’s opening stats in Indian cricket
Meanwhile, Rohit and Virat have opened the Indian innings only once, and that too in the shortest format of the game.
On the other hand, they’ve never opened the innings together in ODIs and the management will most certainly not take that step as well for the ODI World Cup.
In 2021, in the 5th T20I against England at Ahmedabad, Kohli and Rohit opened the Indian innings wherein they slammed together a 94-run stand that fans enjoyed a lot.
While Rohit made 64 runs in that game, Kohli remained unbeaten on 80 and India went on to win that game by 36 runs.
Coming back to the IPL, then we all know that Mumbai Indians have a tendency to bounce back after initial setbacks and will most likely do so against the Chennai Super Kings on the 8th of April.
On the other hand, RCB will also look to keep up their winning momentum when they meet Kolkata Knight Riders today at Eden Gardens.
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