Rohit Sharma said the decision to drop out of form opener KL Rahul from the playing XI in the final 5th T20I and bringing skipper Virat Kohli up the order to open against England was a “tactical move”.
India’s vice-captain Rohit Sharma made it clear on Saturday that Virat Kohli opening the innings in the 5th T20I against England was a one-off decision as they wanted to play an extra bowler in T Natarajan and therefore, had to drop out-of-form KL Rahul from their final XI.
Rohit Sharma Feels It’s Early Days To Talk About Batting Lineup In T20I World Cup
Skipper Virat Kohli promoted himself up the order and top-scored with a stunning 80 not out to help India post 224 for 2 after England won the toss and opted to field. The skipper and his deputy Rohit Sharma laid the foundation for the mammoth score with an opening partnership worth 94 runs in just 9 overs.
The batting performance was backed up by the bowlers with pacers Shardul Thakur (3 for 45) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2 for 15) playing the starring roles with the ball to help India restrict England to 188 for 8 and win the series-decider by 36 runs.
But Rohit Sharma, who smashed 64 off 34 balls, insisted that the decision to drop KL Rahul and bring Virat Kohli up the order was a “tactical move”.
“Still early days to be talking about what the batting lineup will be looking like in the T20 World Cup. We have to analyze and think about what suits the team the most. Today was a tactical move because we wanted an extra bowler to play. We wanted to leave 1 batsman out and unfortunately, it was KL Rahul,” Rohit Sharma told reporters after the game.
KL Rahul’s repeated failures at the top prompted skipper Virat Kohli to promote himself up the batting order and the decision paid rich dividends. India’s opening partnerships registered scores of 2, 0, 7, 21 in the first four T20Is before Rohit Sharma (64) and Virat Kohli (80 not out) teamed up to add 94 runs in the series decider.
Rohit Sharma Defends KL Rahul And Says Decision To Drop Him Doesn’t Send Signal That He Won’t Be Considered For 2021 T20I World Cup
Rohit Sharma defended KL Rahul’s lean patch and refused to rule him out of contention for this year’s T20 World Cup in India. KL Rahul’s poor run saw him score 1, 0, 0, and 14 in the first 4 T20I matches of the 5 match series.
“He has been one of our key players in the limited-overs format, especially in this format. Looking at the current form the team management decided to play the best XI. But having said that, it doesn’t send any signal that KL will not be considered this was just for one particular game.
“Things might change as we got closer to the World Cup, we do understand his ability and contribution at the top and what he’s done for us. I’m not going to rule out anything neither am I going to say that this is the preferred batting lineup for the World Cup,” Rohit said.
India had been struggling at the top of the order with KL Rahul scoring 1,0,0, 14 in the first four T20Is, Virat Kohli had backed KL Rahul to come well up until the final match as his patience finally ran out with the Karnataka batsman.
For England, Dawid Malan scored 68 and Jos Buttler scored 52 but they lost their way losing 6 quick wickets despite being well placed at 140/2 in the 15th over. While Virat Kohli was the leading run-getter, Shardul Thakur was the leading wicket-taker as India won 3-2.