The former India cricketer and commentator Aakash Chopra has termed India’s decision of opening the innings with Ishan Kishan as “fundamentally wrong”. In the match against New Zealand, Kishan replaced Suryakumar Yadav who was declared unfit for the game. However, the team’s decision to open the innings with the keeper-batter pushed Rohit Sharma down the order.

India’s batting lineup yet against experienced a collapse as the team could manage only 110 runs. The team thus lost their second straight game in the mega event. According to Chopra, in order to have the left-right combination, team India pushed their potential match-winner down the order.

“You played Ishan Kishan because Suryakumar Yadav was not fit and made him open. In order to play the left-right combination, you made your biggest match-winner come down in the order. You changed your set batting order (1,2,3) after just one loss and that is fundamentally wrong. I don’t think that can be justified,” Chopra said on his YouTube channel.

There were no middle-order batters as back-up: Aakash Chopra

Chopra also feels that with the unavailability of Yadav in the match, India found itself in a spot of bother. He added that the side did not pick a single middle-order batter in the 15 man squad as backup. He also asserted that with the presence of KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, and Kishan the team already had a lot of opening options. But when it came to the middle-odder batter the team had no alternative as a backup.

“This thing (opening with Kishan) in turn exposed the selection procedure. The team you had picked had only one extra batsman. The team had several spinners but only one extra batter and that too an opener. If a middle-order batter gets unfit, you are left with no option but to play that opener. That throws the batting line-up out of order.

The team already had three openers (Rohit, KL Rahul, Kishan). Even Sky could have opened but there were no middle-order batters as a backup. This was a two-way problem and just dismantling the opening combination was not the right thing to do. India’s hands were tied in the end,” Chopra added.