Rohit Sharma confirms his opening partner for Sri Lanka ODIs: “Unfortunate that we won’t be able to play Ishan”

Team India skipper Rohit Sharma has confirmed that Shubman Gill will open the batting with him in the ODI series against Sri Lanka, which begins in Guwahati on Tuesday, January 10. While praising Ishan Kishan for his impressive performances recently, Rohit stated that it is only fair for Gill to get a longer run at the top.

With Shikhar Dhawan being dropped for the ODI series against Sri Lanka, there was going to be a toss-up between Kishan and Gill for one of the opening spots.

Rohit ended the suspense at a press conference on the eve of the series. Asked which of the two youngsters would open the innings with him, the captain replied:

"Both openers have done really well. But looking at how both have gone through, I think it is fair that we give Gill a chance to have a fair run because in the last games Gill got a lot of runs as well.

“I am not going to take anything from Ishan. He has been wonderful for us. He got a double hundred and I know what it takes to get a double hundred, it is a great achievement. But just to be honest and be fair to the guys who have done really well before that we need to give those guys enough chances as well.”

While admitting that Ishan would be unfortunate to miss out, Rohit reiterated that it was important to give players a fair chance. The 35-year-old added:

"It is unfortunate that we won't be able to play Ishan but looking at how things have panned out for us in the last 8-9 months, looking at how the ODIs have gone through for us, it is fair to give Gill that run and he has done extremely well in that position.

"We will definitely try out and keep Ishan in the mix and see how things pan out for us as we play lot of games ahead.”

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Gill opened the innings in ODIs in most of the games when Rohit was rested last year. He was Player of the Series in West Indies and Zimbabwe.

The 23-year-old was rested for the Bangladesh ODIs. After Rohit was ruled out of the final match of the series, Ishan came in and smashed the fastest double hundred in ODIs.

“Form is important, but formats are also important” - Rohit Sharma on India’s middle-order options

Speaking about the middle-order selections, Rohit stated that they will go by form in a particular format and not recent white-ball form. On the options available, he said:

“It’s a great headache to have. We will look at the performances of the guys who have done well. The problem happens when we start comparing different formats. We have to look at who has done well for us in ODIs. Guys who have performed will get a run. Form is important, but formats are also important.”

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Apart from Rohit, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, and Shreyas Iyer also did not feature in the T20Is against Sri Lanka. All of them are part of the ODI squad.