T20 World Cup: Gambhir names his picks for India openers; comments on Kishan's inclusion

Team India will start their T20 World Cup campaign with the Super 12 match on October 24 at the Dubai International Stadium. Having one of the most formidable squads, many cricket pundits have picked Virat Kohli & Co as their favourites to win the T20 World Cup. However, various experts have also pointed out that choosing a perfect playing XI will be one of the key challenges that skipper Virat Kohli would face. Now, Team India's former cricketer Gautam Gambhir during a discussion at ESPNcricinfo has picked his openers who should play for India in the T20 World Cup. 

On being asked about the batters who should feature in Team India's top 3, Gautam Gambhir replied, "KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma to open the innings. Virat Kohli to bat at no. 3"

On being asked about in-form Ishan Kishan, Gautam Gambhir stated, "I don't think so. If KL Rahul or Rohit Sharma do not fire, then probably Virat Kohli should open the batting. I don't think Ishan Kishan will get an opportunity, in my scheme of things, to be honest."

It is pertinent to mention here that Team India has three openers in their squad namely- Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, and Ishan Kishan. Also, skipper Virat Kohli opens for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the IPL 2021. During the India vs England warm-up match, Ishan Kishan scored unbeaten 70 runs off 46 balls making a case for himself to be included in the Indian XI. However, Virat Kohli during India vs England warm-up match had clarified that KL Rahul will open in the T20 World Cup and he will be batting at the number 3 position. Following that many cricket experts had expressed that Ishan Kishan might not make it into Team India's playing XI as Rohit Sharma is too good to be left out. 

Team India's schedule for T20 World Cup

• October 24: India vs Pakistan (Time 7:30 PM IST  Venue: Dubai)
• October 31:  India vs New Zealand (Time 7:30 PM IST  Venue: Dubai)
• November 3: India vs Afghanistan (Time 7:30 PM IST  Venue: Abu Dhabi)
• November 5: India vs Scotland (Time 7:30 PM IST  Venue: Dubai)
• November 8:  India vs Namibia (Time 7:30 PM IST  Venue: Dubai)

Squad: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Rahul Chahar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami

Reserves: Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Chahar, Axar Patel

(Image: PTI)