No Place For Gill Or Jaiswal In Aakash Chopra's India Opening & Number Three Slots For T20 World Cup 2024

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Youngsters Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shumban Gill don't find a place as former India cricket turned commentator Aakash Chopra has preferred the senior trio to fill the top 3 slots in the Indian batting line-up for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024.

Jaiswal or Gill were believed to be the likely opening options with Ruturaj Gaikwad also in the mix. But with skipper Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli keen to play in the show-piece tournament, one or if not both the youngsters may not find a place in the team.

Rohit and Kohli are set to play together in a T20I for the first time since the last T20 World Cup in Australia, when Team India hosts Afghanistan in the second T20I at the Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore on Sunday (January 14).

While India used Gill as Rohit's opening partner in the absence of Jaiswal and Kohli in the series opener on Thursday (January 11), the skipper is likely to open with a new partner in tonight's match.

Head coach Rahul Dravid has hinted Kohli and Rohit could open, while several pundits, including Chopra, have backed the call to try the two senior players as openers.

Chopra wants Rohit and Kohli to open during the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup in the West Indies and USA, saying that the pitches at the venue will be such that there will be better chances at scoring runs in the first six overs of the innings.

On his Youtube channel, Chopra, who believes Kohli takes his time, but scores swiftly in the powerplay, said if the team management wants to go ahead with him and Rohit as openers, they should start with the Afghanistan series.

"If you see the entire World Cup, Virat Kohli has a playing style and he scores a lot of runs when he follows that template. Even in T20s, he rarely starts hitting fours and sixes from the first ball. He takes his time. If he has to run at a strike rate of 150, he does that in the powerplay," said Aakash.

Kohli opens the innings for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and has had great success with them, scoring 3611 runs, including 7 hundreds and 26 fifties in 98 IPL innings at a strike rate of 135.45.

In the nine matches he has opened for India, Kohli has scored 400 runs at an average of 57.14, with a century and three fifties. His strike rate as an opener is also 161.29, which is way higher than his career strike rate of over 137 in T20Is.

"In New York or the West Indies, the pitches will be such that there will be more chances of runs getting scored in the first six overs. So ideally, you want Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to be together from the start. If you have to follow that template, start it now," Chopra added.

Chopra also talked about how the team management said that Jaiswal is their first-choice opener ahead of Gill and if they decide to persist with him, it would mean playing Kohli at number three and number one-ranked T20I batter Suryakumar Yadav at number four.

"You are talking about keeping Yashasvi Jaiswal or Shubman Gill. You wanted to play Gill at number 3. He opened in the last match because Yashasvi was not there, but that is neither your long-term plan nor you have thought anything about it. You already said that Yashasvi is your first opener alongside Rohit and not Gill," Chopra added.

If Jaiswal or Gill open with Rohit, then Kohli will bat at number three, an idea which Chopra has disapproved as he doesn't want Suryakumar batting at number four, as he wants him to get more game time.

"So if Yashasvi is available, you will get him to open. However, if you get Yashasvi to open, my problem is not only about Kohli at number three. I do not want to keep Suryakumar Yadav at number four. I want him at number one. Suryakumar Yadav is India's number-one T20 batter. So I want him at number 3 and I want to give him time to drive the game," he added.

Suryakumar is currently unavailable due to an injury, but the T20 sensation should be fit and available during the IPL 2024, meaning he will be available for selection for the T20 World Cup 2024.