Rohit & Virat included: Is India batting in the wrong direction ahead of T20 WC?

WITH SIX MONTHS to go for the next T20 World Cup, India are showing signs of drifting away from their T20 blueprint, in place for the past 14 months, by bringing in Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli back into the fold.

- VENKATA B KRISHNA

With their presence, two of the three in India's top-orderwhich was identified as a problematic area are back in the XI.Word around is that injuries to Ruturaj Gaikwad and Suryakumar Yadav opened up spots for the return of Rohit and Kohli, who as reported by this newspaper wanted to get back into the T20 fold. But with Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill already in the XI, including Shreyas Iyer as an option at No 3 and grooming Sai Sudharsan would have only made them stick to the plan.

In successive T20 World Cups, India's hard learned lesson was that their top three were too slow. They had experienced it first hand during the 2021 edition, but still repeated in 2022. They course corrected since, identifying what they lacked at the top and searching for batsmen who could provide the impetus for the middleorder. Their old-school way of top-order laying the platform was too outdated. In the T20Is in New Zealand after the T20 World Cup, in a first clear change of intent, they opened with Rishabh Pant.And since then between Gill, Ishan Kishan, Gaikwad, Jaiswal, India had been showing refreshing signs of moving forward. But here they are, going back to two players, who have limitations in T20s.