Stand-in Indian skipper Suryakumar Yadav has opened up on the selection between Ishan Kishan and Jitesh Kumar for the first T20I against Australia starting on Thursday. In the absence of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, and Hardik Pandya, the Men in Blue have picked a second-string team for the T20 series.
Ishan Kishan was recently part of India’s Asia Cup and World Cup squads, where he played a variety of roles for the team. The left-handed batter had a reasonable outing with the bat for the Mumbai Indians scoring 454 runs from 15 games at an impressive strike rate of 142.76.
Jitesh Sharma has impressed everyone with his hard-hitting batting and finishing abilities and has also been impressed with his work behind the stumps for Punjab Kings and Vidarbha. He made his international debut against Nepal during the 2022 Asian Games held in Hangzhou and would be keen to get going if provided an opportunity.
Speaking at the pre-match press conference, Suryakumar Yadav said that they aim to maintain the continuity with Jitesh Sharma from the last tournament and added that Ishan Kishan has performed exceptionally in his roles assigned to him at the Asia Cup and ODI World Cup and deserves to play, stating that decisions would be taken regarding that.
“I mean, he’s been doing really well, and we wanted to keep that continuity from last tournament. And he’s the guy who has been working really hard whenever he gets to a practice session. And, Ishan has been doing really well for us by taking up that role you saw in the Asia Cup in the World Cup as well, batting order”.
“So I think he also deserves that opportunity. But going forward, we will definitely take a call tonight. I mean, what we want from both of them,” Suryakumar Yadav said.
Experienced Indian players such as Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, and Mohammed Shami will be rested following the completion of the ODI World Cup 2023, providing an opportunity for up-and-coming talent to showcase their abilities ahead of the all-important T20 World Cup in 2024.
Head of National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru, VVS Laxman will be in charge of Team India in the five-match Twenty20 International series against Australia and is expected to take a full-time position in the Indian team following the end of Rahul Dravid’s coaching stint with the Indian team.
