“KL Rahul misses out, I will move to the top of the order with Rohit Sharma” - Virat Kohli
India have dropped out of form batsman KL Rahul for the final T20I against England at Ahmedabad on Saturday. Virat Kohli confirmed that he would be opening the innings along with Rohit Sharma.
After losing yet another toss and being sent into bat, Virat Kohli explained that left-arm seamer T Natarajan had been included to strengthen the bowling.
Speaking at the toss, the Indian captain spoke about the team changes:
“Unfortunately, KL Rahul misses out and I will move to the top of the order with Rohit (Sharma). We will give Suryakumar more chances and I feel he's our X-factor player. T Natarajan comes in. We wanted to bring in good balance with bat and ball."
Rahul struggled in the first four games, managing scores of just 1, 0, 0 and 14. Virat Kohli had earlier stated that the team would back Rahul to the hilt as he was a champion player.
Team India batting coach Vikram Rathour has also stated that Rahul is their best batsman in the T20 format, irrespective of the fact that he is going through a rough patch.
Looks an even better pitch than last game: Virat Kohli
While admitting that he too would have bowled first, Virat Kohli stated that he wasn’t too disappointed with losing the toss. He termed the pitch as an even better one than the surface used for the last match.
“Pretty happy, we would have bowled first as well. Looks like an even better pitch than the last game. As a side you understand the areas we need to improve and if we can get confident defending totals, this is something we are looking to execute well,” he said.
England skipper Eoin Morgan pointed out that during the last match there was heavy dew so they would prefer to chase.
“We're going to do the same (chase). Last game there was so much dew. The wickets have been different. The first game had carry and bounce and it naturally suited us. We have to adapt, but we are very excited about the match. We're still striving to improve - one area is bowling in powerplay - and having clarity of roles moving into the World Cup,” Morgan stated.
The England captain confirmed that they have made no changes to the team since their last match.
Despite heavy dew and a wet ball, India still managed to defeat England by eight runs, bowling second in the previous T20I.