Ahead of the first Test against West Indies, Rohit talks about the possible opening pair in WI vs IND 2023 1st Test in the pre-match Press conference.
Possible opening pair in WI vs IND 2023 1st Test
The Indian Skipper Rohit Sharma says that Yashasvi Jaiswal will be joining him for the opening 1st Test, on the eve of the first Test against West Indies. Shubman Gill will come down a spot at No.3 for backing middle order requesting coach Rahul Dravid.
As Gill and Rohit Sharma have been opening for India in recent times, the arrival of Yashasvi Jaiswal resulted in the separation of the combination in the upcoming match in Dominica.
Jaiswal’s records in the IPL 2023 made him earn his maiden call-up for West Indies Tour. The season of 2023 turned out to be the most important aspect in deciding his career. Only playing 14 matches for Rajasthan Royals, the batter scored 625 runs at a superb strike of 163.61. His average in the season was around 48.08.
He scored a century but should have been considered as two due to his score of 98 off just 47 balls in his side Rajasthan Royals’ nine-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders.
Jaiswal now has the record for the fastest IPL 50s in that match and came within a ball of equalling Yuvraj Singh’s record of the fastest fifty overall in T20 cricket.
Rohit said, “For the batting positions, Gill will play at No. 3. He himself has said that he had a chat with Rahul Dravid and said that he’s played his entire career at 3 and 4 and that he can perform better for the team at No. 3.
And for us also it becomes better because we have a left-right opening combination. So that is what we’ll try to do and hopefully, this will go on for a long term”.
He added, “We have wanted a left-hander for a long time and we’ve got one now and let’s hope he performs well for the team and can really make his spot his own.”
Rohit’s view on India’s decision favouring Ashwin
After speaking about Jaiswal and Gill, he said considering the venue which has favored spinners, helped India to make the decision to add Ashwin to the squad, who missed out the WTC finals.
“Looking at the wicket, it looks like we’ll play with two spinners and three seamers. Because what we’ve seen here, 2017 was the last Test played here and lot of wickets taken by the spinners. Having practiced here as well and with the bounce, we feel that we have to go with the 3-2 combination,” said Rohit.
“All these guys were in the radar and the selectors were watching them closely, I’m glad they could be rewarded,” he remarked on the youngsters picked for the series.
“There are also a couple of guys who missed out but unfortunately you can get only 15-16 players but everyone’s time will come. Looking forward, Indian cricket desperately needed a lefthander and we found a very good player in Jaiswal.
He looks very promising and so is Ruturaj. Gill has obviously been playing good cricket for a year now and hope he continues his good form. Ruturaj has good potential in red-ball cricket, he has shown us in T20 cricket what he can do.
It’s time for him to show…and pretty sure he is also looking forward to getting more and more runs for the Indian team. It’s always good for Indian cricket when you have guys like these coming in.”
He concludes by saying, “This will be a challenge for Indian cricket, for the amount of cricket we play we have to. We have to manage players, rotate them, give them a break and make sure they’re fresh when they return.”
CHECK: WI vs IND 2023 Live Streaming – India Tour of West Indies
