T20 World Cup 2024: What happened when Virat Kohli opened for only time with Rohit Sharma in T20I cricket?

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T20 World Cup 2024: Virat Kohli has opened for a total of nine times in T20I cricket and only once with Rohit Sharma. The star batters are very likely to open together in the T20 World Cup 2024 which started on June 2.

Yashasvi Jaiswal did not come out to open with Rohit Sharma in India's only warm-up match against Bangladesh at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium on Saturday, May 1. The same almost confirmed that it would be Virat Kohli who would come out to open with India captain Rohit Sharma.

Virat Kohli, who arrived in the USA, did not feature in the warm-up game, and will now directly feature in the team's opener against Ireland on June 5 in New York.

The move to introduce Kohli as an opener could be made to his best as a T20I cricketer. In the IPL 2024, he scored 741 runs at a strike in excess of 150 to win the Orange Cap. The team is expectedly looking to give Kohli the opportunity to make the maximum use of the fielding restrictions in the powerplay.

When Virat Kohli opened with Rohit Sharma in a T20I match

Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma opened together in a T20I match for the first and last time in March 2022 against England at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

After England invited India to bat first, Kohli and Rohit came out to open together and partnered for 94 runs off just 54 balls. Virat Kohli, who was the India captain that time, scored 80 runs off 52 balls (seven fours and two sixes). Rohit Sharma scored 64 off 34 balls (four fours, five sixes).

The knock fired India to 224/2 after healthy contributions from Suryakumar Yadav (32*) and Hardik Pandya (39*). In the second-half of the match, only two England batters could cross the 15-run mark, and they ended up losing the match by 36 runs.

Shardul Thakur and Bhuvneshwar Kumar picked three and two wickets respectively. Virat Kohli was given Man of the Series award after India's 3-2 win.