Virat Kohli Ready To Sacrifice Number 3 Spot To Play All Three Openers Against Australia

Virat Kohli has hinted that he is ready to sacrifice his number three position to allow all the three openers viz KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan to be part of the playing XI in the ODI series against Australia. On the eve of the opening ODI, Kohli said that he is ready to change his batting position like he has been doing in the shortest format for long.

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The problem of plenty emerged after an injury to Shikhar Dhawan. In his absence, KL Rahul came up regular performances in white-ball cricket.  Dhawan does hold an edge over Rahul in 50-over cricket but looking at Rahul’s form, it’s a tough call to keep him out.

Kohli has found a way out of it and is set to accommodate all the three openers in the playing XI. Though his demotion would also mean a demotion for Shreyas Iyer. He has been tipped to be the number four batsman for India in limited-overs cricket but the right-handed batsman will have to leave his spot with captain coming down.

Since there is no 50-over World Cup coming up, India can also try out all the three openers and test which of these two will open the innings in the long run.

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It is to be noted that India did play all the three players together at World Cup 2019. Rahul, who was selected as the reserve opener, batted at number four position but was promoted once Dhawan was ruled out of the tournament.

Apart from the inclusion of all the three openers, there will be no other major surprise. Jasprit Bumrah will play his first ODI after World Cup 2019 and is expected to be joined by Mohammed Shami. There will be a direct race between Shardul Thakur and Navdeep Saini for a place in the playing XI. Unlike T20Is, Ravindra Jadeja is expected to be in the playing XI in all three ODIs.

The first ODI of the series takes place at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Tuesday.