The Sri Lankan cricket team’s tour of India begins today with the first of the scheduled 3 match series taking place tonight, on the 24th February in Lucknow’s Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Stadium.
The Indian cricket team, under the leadership of Rohit Sharma, recorded quite a comprehensive series win over the West Indies team earlier as India handed West Indies a 3-0 clean sweep.
Following which, the selectors have also decided to rest former captain Virat Kohli along with wicketkeeper batsman Rishabh Pant for the series, which will give the team an opportunity to test out the other members of the team as India looks to find its best combination before the T20 World Cup 2022.
Meanwhile, in the third T20I match of the series against West Indies, there was massive change at the top of order, as captain Rohit Sharma gave away opening slot to Ruturaj Gaikwad, who opened alongside Ishan Kishan, while Rohit came in at number 3.
Following which, there is questions among the fans as to whether Rohit Sharma do so again. However, former Indian cricketer Wasim Jaffer thinks different and feels that Rohit Sharma should open alongside Ruturaj Gaikwad.
While speaking on a show on ESPNcricinfo, Wasim Jaffer said that Rohit Sharma and Ruturaj Gaikwad should open the inning for the duration of the series as the plan didn’t worked when Ishan Kishan opened for the team against West Indies. He also hopes that Ruturaj Gaikwad be given a lengthy run into the team.
“Rohit Sharma and Ruturaj Gaikwad should open in this series because India played with Ishan Kishan [against West Indies] and didn’t have a great series,” said Wasim Jaffer.
Ishan Kishan was given a huge opportunity to open for the team due to the unavailability of KL Rahul. But Ishan did not had a good series, as the left-hand batsman could only score 71 runs for the team in the 3 matches, opening for the team, while strike rate was also below 100 in two of those occasions, raising question marks over his position as India’s opener.
Meanwhile, Ruturaj Gaikwad got only a single go in the third match of the series, but could not get going as he got out for just 4 runs in that match.
The series against Sri Lanka begins today, i.e. 24th February with the first T20I in Lucknow. The remaining two matches will be played on the 26th and 27th February in Dharamshala.