VVS Laxman, former cricketer decided to give his own predicted line-up for Virat Kohli’s team and gave the usual names with a few surprises. With Team India set to open their T20 World Cup 2021 campaign on Sunday, many fans have been left wondering about Virat Kohli’s preferred playing XI for the tournament.
Speaking on Star Sports, the Test cricket legend didn’t include dashing keeper Ishan Kishan in his batting order and also skipped pace bowling all-rounder Shardul Thakur, whose performance wasn’t good in the warm-up game against Australia (0/30 in 3 overs).
VVS Laxman Picks Playing XI Against Pakistan Omitting Ishan Kishan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, And Mohammed Shami
VVS Laxman went with KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma as his openers instead. He also included Suryakumar Yadav at number five. The batting looked solid on both the warm-up games against England and Australia as Rohit Sharma (60 retired vs Aus), Ishan Kishan (70 retired vs Eng) and KL Rahul(51 vs Eng and 39 vs Aus) scored heavily.
“They are spoilt for choices. But I will go with Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul to open. No. 3 will be Virat Kohli, No. 4 will be Suryakumar Yadav, No. 5 Rishabh Pant, No. 6 Hardik Pandya, No. 7 will be Ravindra Jadeja, No. 8 will be Bhuvneshwar Kumar, No. 9 will be Bumrah”, Laxman said.
“No. 10 and No. 11 will be two spinners, Varun Chakaravarthy and Rahul Chahar”, he continued.
For numbers 10 and 11 VVS Laxman has opted to go with Varun Chakravarthy and Rahul Chahar. Strangely, the cricketer-turned-expert did not include Ravichandran Ashwin in his playing XI.
The all-rounder had a good match against Australia as he managed to pick two wickets and was also pretty economical having match figures of 2/8 from 2 overs. Pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar too had a good outing against Australia (1/27) after a poor outing against England (0/54) like spinner Rahul Chahar (1/17 off 3) who failed in the previous warm-up game (1/43).
VVS Laxman Explained That He Will Back The Top 7 To Score Bulk Of The Runs
Justifying his line-up, VVS Laxman explained that the top seven in the order would be able to score plenty of runs.
“It’s a long tail but I will back the top seven to get the bulk of the runs”, he stated.
For their first match, India faces Pakistan on Sunday at the Dubai International Stadium. They have already played a warm-up game against England, winning by seven wickets. Chasing a target of 189, India reached 192 for three in 19 overs. Openers KL Rahul and Ishan Kishan were in brilliant form. KL Rahul smashed 51 off 24 deliveries and Ishan Kishan retired after playing a knock of 70 runs off 46 balls.
Virat Kohli, who batted at No.3, could only muster 11 off 13 deliveries. Meanwhile, Rishabh Pant was unbeaten at No. 4 after registering 29 off 14 balls. Suryakumar Yadav, who batted at No. 5, could only bag eight in nine balls and Hardik Pandya remained unbeaten at No. 6 after hitting 12 off 10 balls.
India fine-tuned its T20 World Cup preparations with a convincing nine-wicket win over Australia in its final warm-up game at ICC cricket Academy Stadium. Rohit Sharma (60 retired off 41) showed sublime touch alongside opening partner KL Rahul (39 off 31) as India chased down Australia’s 152 for five in 17.5 overs.
Suryakumar Yadav (38 not out off 27) came at number three in Virat Kohli’s absence and got valuable time in the middle, which should boost his confidence going ahead. Finally, Hardik Pandya (14 not out off 8) came at four to finish the game, and he did it with a clean hit over the bowler’s head. Steve Smith (57 off 48), Glenn Maxwell (37 off 28), and Marcus Stoinis (41 not out off 25 balls) did well but their contributions went in vain.