India skipper Virat Kohli doesn't endorse the idea of pitting a veteran batsman like Shikhar Dhawan against a relatively younger KL Rahul as probable partner for Rohit Sharma in the forthcoming three-match ODI series against Australia.
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Dhawan, who went through a painful 2019 as multiple injuries forced him to take a break from the game, returned to form and scored 36-ball 52 to script India’s 78-run victory over Sri Lanka in the third T20I at Pune on Friday (January 10).
Since Rahul has been in tremendous form lately, it will be interesting to see how the team management deals with the problem of plenty at the top in the upcoming assignments.
"All three openers are pretty strong players, and it's great to have players playing well in the team. It gives you options. But I think people need to stop pitting players against each other. It's all about a team game. I don't endorse this idea of putting people in the team against each other," Kohli said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
The Indian captain is delighted that 2020 has started with a convincing 2-0 series win for the Men in Blue.
"We have started on the right track, chasing (in) one game and setting one game. Two very clinical performances, so I am very happy. Just the confidence of getting that 200 mark every now and then will put us in a good stead," he remarked.
Virat was also pleased with the performance of Player-of-the-Match Shardul Thakur and middle-order batsman Manish Pandey in the final T20I.
"That middle collapse was challenging and what Manish and Shardul did was very good. We require more of this in the coming games as well, to see who are the guys putting their hands up when the senior guys don't get runs.
"Batting first and setting totals... today I thought 180 and we got 200. In Mumbai, (vs West Indies) we thought of 200 and we got 230. We just want to continue that, we don't want to be a team that is tentative batting first. How confident we are batting second, we want to be like that batting first as well.
(With PTI inputs)
