World Cup 2019: Kohli delighted with Rahul but 'not worried' about openers

After the failure of Indian openers, Rahul came forward and slammed a 99-ball-108 in the final warm-up game which India won by 95 runs

Batting at No 4, KL Rahul may have had failed to produce against New Zealand in the first warm-up match, but he didn’t disappoint his skipper on Tuesday when he took the centre stage against Bangladesh at Cardiff. After the failure of Indian openers, Rahul came forward and slammed a 99-ball-108 in the final warm-up game which India won by 95 runs. In reply, captain Virat Kohli gave enough indications that Rahul has sealed his spot at No 4, however, he is not overly worried about Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma's patchy form ahead of the tournament opener. “The biggest positive from today was the way KL (Rahul) batted at No. 4. Everyone else knows their roles. It is important that he gets the runs as he is such a class player,” Kohli said. “MS (Dhoni) and Hardik were superb as well, he added. Dhoni also scored a hundred -- a 78-ball 113 -- while Hardik Pandya contributed 21 from 11 deliveries down the order. The two senior openers, however, didn't get the kind of practice that they would have ideally liked before the first game against South Africa on June 5 in Southampton. Dhawan had scores of 1 and 2 while Rahit scored 2 and 19 against New Zealand and Bangladesh respectively. “We have had two good challenges in the two games while batting first. Shikhar and Rohit are quality players, they become stars in ICC events. Ideally, we would have liked to chase today. I understand if guys don't get going right away in this format. In warm-up games, at times, you don't get the motivation especially because of the amount of cricket that we play. But I am glad about what we got out of these two games,” Kohli came in defence of the opening duo. He also praised the wrist spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal for picking six wickets amongst themselves. “We were challenged by their batsmen as well but we bowled well and our spinners got wickets too. Bumrah got us the breakthrough and Chahal and Kuldeep got us six wickets,” Kohli said.