Team India might have started to implement their gameplan for the T20 World Cup 2022 with three months to go and the first signs of it were on show in the second T20I against England on Saturday at Edgbaston. India batted first and the first significant change with the first-choice players returning to the side was that Rishabh Pant walked out to bat with skipper Rohit Sharma.
Pant, who has been struggling of late in white-ball cricket is coming off from probably his best Test-match innings against at Edgbaston last week. With Dinesh Karthik and Suryakumar Yadav holding on to their places, India had to make room to fit Pant in and it maybe a blessing in disguise as opening might be his thing in the white-ball formats.
Pant, who likes giving the ball a whack more often than not finds fielders in T20s and opening might provide him an option to go for his shots fearlessly with only two fielders outside the inner circle. Former India coach R Sridhar hailed the decision as a potential ‘watershed moment’ bringing in similarities with that of Sachin Tendulkar going at the top of the order in 1994.
” Hopefully, it’s going to be a watershed moment like it happened in 1994 when someone put Mr. Tendulkar at the top,” Sridhar said of Pant’s promotion to the opening spot.
“I think to start with, a left-hander at the top is very, very important. He can make bowling ridiculously silly, and he will walk the talk like Rohit is doing,” Sridhar said on Sony Sports.
Sridhar said that Pant can offset any bowling unit and this might just be the tonic the 24-year-old and India need in T20Is.
“He will play the way he would want the team to play. He will put off the bowling unit. He will create fear and all the bowlers will focus on him. It will open up the other end,” Sridhar said.
