‘It is tough to find the right number for him’ – Rohit Sharma sheds light on promoting Rishabh Pant up the order

Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant. (Source – Twitter/X)

India have commenced their T20 World Cup 2024 campaign with a comprehensive win against Ireland in their first game. Their next assignment is Pakistan as they take on the arch-rivals on June 9 in New York. In the first game, premier opener, Yashasvi Jaiswal was benched and Rishabh Pant was promoted to number four in batting. The latest changes in the playing XI grabbed some eyeballs and Rohit Sharma has provided the logic behind the decision.

The India captain revealed that though Pant is coming after a long hiatus, his performance in the Indian Premier League played a major part in him providing him with the middle-order spot. He also said that with Top-3 being right-handers, Pant was the right choice to use the number four spot to amplify the run rate. He also revealed that Jaiswal is not ruled out and vowed to utilise him well going forward.

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“I had to see Pant in a few IPL games to decide where I wanted to play him during the World Cup. When I saw him during the first half of the tournament, I was really happy with his performance. With a player like him, and the ability he has, it is tough to find the right number for him. But when we have three right-handers in the start, it is nice to have him in the middle. When we move ahead in the tournament, spinners will play a big role and his counterattacking ability against spin will be important,” said Rohit as quoted by NDTV Sports.

I think Jaiswal has got an all-round game: Rohit

Jaiswal was amongst the best batters for Rajasthan Royals in the IPL 2024. The southpaw even notched up a century against Mumbai Indians after a series of low scores. He was under scrutiny by the pundits for playing his shots with more power rather than timing the ball. With Rohit and Virat Kohli opening in the T20 World Cup, he seems to have lost his place in the playing XI.

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“With Yashasvi Jaiswal not in the playing eleven, he is that guy who can play with freedom. I have seen enough of him doing that over the years and I know what his strengths are. There is a bit of weakness as well, but I want to focus on his strengths. I think he has got an all-round game, which I would like to utilise more and get him to play more balls. Besides the openers, none of the guys’ positions are fixed. We want to be flexible about these positions. Some guys love certain entry points into the game and we would like to think about it,” Rohit added.

The skipper also mentioned that only the openers’ position is fixed and no other batter’s and they want to be flexible with the batting positions.