Injured Shikhar Dhawan has replaced by Prithvi Shaw for the 50-over series in New Zealand. Now the Indian skipper has confirmed that Shaw will be the opening partner of Mayank Agarwal who has been included in the team in place of injured Rohit Sharma.
Prithvi Shaw to open with Mayank Agarwal
Virat Kohli was speaking to the media a day before the first one day match in Hamilton and he confirmed that Shaw would be partnering the replacement of Rohit Sharma. He also mentioned that the team management had asked for another opener in place of Rohit Sharma. He was asked about KL moving up to the opening slot and clearly said, “No, we are looking to stick to that same plan. It’s an unfortunate situation that Rohit can’t be a part of this series. In all formats, he’s on the list first and the impact he’s had is there for everyone to see.”
He further added, “Prithvi’s in the team and will definitely start and whoever the replacement is [Agarwal] – we’ve asked for an opener. KL will play in the middle-order, we want him to get used to that role at No. 5 and keep as well.”
On KL Rahul and T20I World Cup
While speaking about KL, the captain also insisted that the team would like to stick to the plan of playing KL at the fifth position while keeping wickets for the team. He opined how this would not hamper the team combination with the T20I World Cup ahead. “We don’t have any one-day tournaments to look forward to so it’s an ideal time for him to go away and rectify this as soon as he can. He played the T20I series, so from the team’s balance perspective heading into a World Cup year, it doesn’t hamper combinations.”
He talked about the preparations for T20I World Cup as well and said that even IPL would be a great platform to prepare for the same. “We’ve had five T20Is already, so it’s not like we don’t have a lot of T20 cricket (coming up). We have the IPL as well, so we’ll probably utilize that (to prepare for the World Cup). Last year, we didn’t have much opportunity to prepare ourselves (for the 50-over World Cup) except for the games in front of you.”
Stay updated with all the cricketing action, follow Cricadium on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
