3 players who can open the innings with Rohit Sharma in India vs West Indies T20I series

After whitewashing Bangladesh in the 2-Test series, India will host West Indies for a limited overs series in December. Virat Kohli’s men have been phenomenal in the longest format of the game but the same cannot be said of their performances in the T20 format. They had drawn the series against South Africa while Bangladesh had recorded their first ever T20I win over India in the previous series.

The situation has become worse for the Indian team as their star opener, Shikhar Dhawan has been ruled out of the series against West Indies with an injury. Dhawan had been an important member of the Indian T20 team since the past few years and the selectors have surprised the fans by including a middle-order batsman in the team as his replacement.

Sanju Samson is a better batsman in the middle order and the team should not commit the mistake of sending him as an opener along with Rohit Sharma. Instead, the team should pick any of the following three batsmen as Rohit’s partner.

Virat Kohli

It is no secret that the Indian captain, Virat Kohli loves to open the innings in the T20 format. The cricket universe has seen how he comes out to bat at the number 1 or number 2 position for his IPL franchise, Royal Challengers Bangalore. Virat had earlier tried himself as an opening batsman in T20 cricket but he achieved little success as an opener.

Since Dhawan may recover from his injury soon, the skipper might be tempted to promote himself once again. Also, if Kohli promotes himself to the opening position, the team can fit  the young quartet of Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey and Sanju Samson in the middle order.

This would help them in finalizing their middle-order batsmen for the 2020 T20 World Cup besides Kohli can enjoy himself in the middle as well.