The former Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Parthiv Patel is of the opinion that the Indian team management is making so many changes at the top of the order and experimenting with a lot of different openers because they somehow want to accommodate Virat Kohli at no. 3.
According to Parthiv Patel, who was analyzing the first game between India and West Indies on Cricbuzz, since the head coach Rahul Dravid and the captain Rohit Sharma want to have Virat Kohli as a certainty in the World Cup XI, they are trying to see what the other players can offer at different positions if a vacancy opens up at those positions during or before the World Cup.
In the T20I series against England, which India won by 2-1, it was Ishan Kishan who opened the batting with Rohit Sharma in the first game and then Rishabh Pant opened in the next two.
With Ishan out of the XI and Pant in for the first T20I against West Indies, it was expected that Pant would open again, but this time around, Suryakumar Yadav walked out to open with Rohit Sharma, catching everyone by surprise.
Indian fans couldn’t make sense of Suryakumar’s promotion, but Parthiv Patel justified the move
Although Suryakumar gave India a good start and scored 24 off 16, since he had scored a glorious hundred batting at no. 4 in the third T20I against England, the Indian fans couldn’t quite understand why SKY’s batting position was changed and why he was promoted to open the batting.
Parthiv Patel, however, insisted that all these moves have been made because certain spots in the XI are fixed and as far as certain other players are concerned, who might not be automatic picks in the first choice XI when everyone is available, the management wants to see what those fringe players can offer batting in different phases of the innings and in different situations.
