Revealed: Who Will Open The Indian Batting With Rohit Sharma In IND vs AUS 3rd ODI?

India skipper Rohit Sharma will have a new opening partner for the ongoing third and final ODI against Australia in Rajkot. The reason is that his regular partner Shubman Gill has been rested for the game.

Rohit Sharma was not a part of the team for the first two ODIs as he along with Virat Kohli, Kuldeep Yadav, and Hardik Pandya was rested. In his absence, Gill and Ruturaj Gaikwad had opened the innings in the first two ODIs.

Gaikwad has been released from the squad for the Asian Games where the right-handed batsman will lead the Indian team. Ishan Kishan was another opening option in the squad but he has been ruled out of the game too due to a viral fever.

Who will open the innings with Rohit Sharma:

With Gill, Gaikwad, and Kishan out of the third ODI, Rohit Sharma is set to have a new opening partner. And according to India’s team sheet, Virat Kohli is likely to partner Rohit Sharma at the top of the order. Shreyas Iyer had batted at number three in the previous games in the absence of Virat Kohli and he is likely to bat in the same position.

While Virat Kohli has batted at number three for the most part of his ODI career, he is not new to opening the innings in the 50-over format. He has opened the innings 7 times in ODIs so far and has scored 166 runs at a modest average of 24. The former India skipper would be looking to improve his stats as an opener in ODIs in the ongoing game.

Meanwhile, India will be looking to extend their winning run. The Men in Blue have already sealed the series by winning the first two games and are on the verge of whitewashing Australia in an ODI series for the very first time.

Talking about the ongoing game, Australia were on 7 for no loss after 2 overs at the time of compiling this report.

India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna