IND vs WI: We haven't really decided that yet- Vikram Rathour on Rishabh Pant opening the batting in T20Is
India Today
India batting coach Vikram Rathour said the team has not yet decided whether it would be experimenting again in the T20I series against West Indies by opening the batting with Rishabh Pant.
India batting coach Vikram Rathour on Monday said the team management had not decided about experimenting again in the T20I series against West Indies by opening the batting with wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant.
Rathour opened up on the side's combinations for the T20I series against West Indies as they will be without star opener KL Rahul for three games. Notably, Ishan Kishan and Rishabh Pant opened the innings once each in the ODI series with Rohit Sharma being the other opener. Deepak Hooda and Ruturaj Gaikwad were named replacements after Rahul was ruled out due to a hamstring strain.
"We haven't really decided that yet, we still have a couple of days to go. We had a travel day and rest day, so today we have our first practice day, once we get to look at the wicket and the kind of surface we are playing," Rathour said during a virtual press conference on Monday.
"We'll then see, we have options available, KL is out I understand, we have Ishan and Ruturaj in the mix, so we will see," he added.
Rathour stressed that Pant is a fantastic player but he is more suited to play in the middle order according to the team requirement for now.
"We have options, Rishabh is a fantastic player, he can play good cricket up the order but it depends on what the team needs and what we are looking at. I have no doubt that he will be in team post-2023 too but we can utilize him more precisely in the middle order or lower order," he added.
India and West Indies will lock horns in three T20Is, beginning Wednesday at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata.
