IND vs ENG ODI: Virat Kohli Reveals The Opening Combination For 1st ODI

“They have been amazing for us,” says Virat Kohli when revealing the names of these two players to open the innings for India against England in the 1st ODI.

India vs England 1^st ODI: Pune’s Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium is all set to welcome the Indian  and the English side for the three-match ODI series. All the three matches would be played at this stadium without any spectators citing Covid-19 reasons. Ahead of the first One Day International, Virat Kohli has revealed his opening batting plans for the team. He confirmed that Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan would be opening the batting for India on Tuesday.

The duo of Sharma and Dhawan have been regular Indian openers in ODIs for many years now. Captain Kohli has confidence in his team and especially the two opening batsmen. Rohit would be returning to the ODI team after January 2020, while Dhawan was part of the Indian one-day team in Australia in November 2020.

“As far as the opening competition in ODIs is concerned, Shikhar and Rohit will definitely start. When it comes to one-day cricket, I don't think there's any issues or doubts over Rohit and Shikhar opening together. And they've been amazing for us in the past few years,” said Virat Kohli while addressing a virtual press conference.

Rohit and Dhawan have had 107 total number of partnerships since 2013. The combination has piled on 4802 runs so far which include 16 100-run stands. Their tally is at number four in the list of all-time best ODI partnerships. Sachin Tendulkar-Sourav Ganguly still top the list.

It’ll be interesting to see if the combination of Rohit and Shikhar is able to fire in the first ODI against England. The match will begin from 1:30 pm IST from Pune’s Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium.

England Men’s ODI Squad: Eoin Morgan, Moeen Ali, Jonathan Bairstow, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Tom Curran , Liam Livingstone, Matt Parkinson, Adil Rashid , Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, Mark Wood.

India Men’s ODI Squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), KL Rahul (wicket-keeper), Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Krunal Pandya, Washington Sundar, T Natarajan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Md. Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Shardul Thakur.