New Delhi: The Indian management dropped Shubman Gill and Tilak Varma out of the Indian playing 11 for the 2nd T20I between Rohit Sharma-led Indian cricket team and Ibrahim Zadran’s Afghanistan at the Holkar Stadium in Indore, on January 14. This has sparked new speculations that Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal will be the new Indian opening pair heading into the T20 World Cup 2024.
Yashasvi Jaiswal was unable to play the first T20I in Mohali due to a sore right groin. However, both he and Virat Kohli made their way into the playing 11 after they were available for selection. On the other hand, Gill who opened for India in the previous match couldn’t convert the start he got into a big score.
The management’s decision to go with Rohit and Jaiswal in the second match is making people believe that this could be BCCI’s plan for Indian openers heading into the T20 World Cup 2024 and this could make things really difficult for Gill.
“We are gonna bowl first. No particular reason. Just nature of the ground especially the small boundaries. The things we were talking in our meeting, we were able to come out and execute that in the first game. We asked specific roles from the guys and they performed accordingly. Not much, they don’t have any baggage and it is all about backing them, allow them to be free on the ground. We will do things keeping the WC in mind but we know results are also important. Kohli and Jaiswal back for Gill and Tilak,” said Rohit at the toss.
It is possible that India went with the left and right-hand combination. However, there is nothing confirmed if it is the end of the road for Gill in the T20 World Cup. Even, Team India’s head coach Rahul Dravid during he pre-series press conference said that performance in IPL will be one of the major factors behind selection in the T20 World Cup 2024 squad as IND vs AFG is the final T20I assignment for the Men in Blue ahead of the mega tournament.
