IND vs WI: Vikram Rathour Speaks On Possibility Of Rishabh Pant Opening In T20Is Against West Indies

Indian team batting coach Vikram Rathour opined about Rishabh Pant opening the batting in the upcoming T20I series against West Indies which begins on February 16 onwards in Kolkata. India whitewashed the Caribbean team 3-0 in the recent ODI series, which was played in Ahmedabad.

Now the caravan moves to Eden Gardens in Kolkata, which will host the three T20I matches on February 16, 18, and 20. The Indian team has experimented a bit during the ODI series at the top with Ishan Kishan and Rishabh Pant opening the innings once each in the three ODIs and KL Rahul coming in for one match, with Rohit Sharma being the other opener.

Now it remains to be seen which batter with open the innings in the T20Is, as Ishan Kishan has been named in the squad as an opener along with Rohit Sharma, and Ruturaj Gaikwad.

Speaking on this matter, Team India batting coach Vikram Rathour said during a press conference: “We haven’t really decided that yet, we still have a couple of days to go. We had a travel day and rest day, so today we have our first practice day, once we get to look at the wicket and the kind of surface we are playing. We’ll then see, we have options available, KL is out I understand, we have Ishan and Ruturaj in the mix, so we will see.”

Rishabh Pant Is A Fantastic Player: Vikram Rathour On Pant Opening The Innings In T20Is

The Indian team is seeing the West Indies series as a way to experiment with their playing XI, especially with the bowlers and top order. Suryakumar Yadav and Shreyas Iyer did brilliantly in the middle order and expect them to continue their good work in T20Is as well.

However, with Venkatesh Iyer coming into the mix at the top as well, Vikram Rathour knows that the team management is spoilt for choices. Still, he was asked about Rishabh Pant getting a chance to open the innings, something he did for the very first time for India in any of the white-ball formats.

The India batting coach stressed that Pant is more suited to play in the middle order according to the team requirement for now.

“We have options, Rishabh is a fantastic player, he can play good cricket up the order but it depends what the team needs and what we are looking at. I have no doubt that he will be in team post-2023 too but we can utilize him more precisely in the middle order or lower order,” he added.

The first T20I begins on February 16.

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