Cricket News

‘Why don’t you open with Dinesh Karthik’ – Akash Chopra criticizes the decision to open with Suryakumar Yadav

The opening combination for the Indian T20 side has been a hot topic of discussion. The skipper and coach, Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma are keen to play a different brand of cricket in T20Is. At the moment, a musical chair session is going on for the opening slot. The Men in Blue have tried a lot of players for that role, of late.

The latest addition to the list has been Suryakumar Yadav, who scored 24 and 11 respectively in his first two opportunities while opening the batting for the Men in Blue. Former Indian opener, Akash Chopra doesn’t seem to be happy with the decision and gave his two cents on the same.

He said that there should be an equilibrium of rules for all players and that special treatment should not be bestowed upon anyone. He feels that flexibility also means that Dinesh Karthik can open the innings, while Rohit Sharma can also drop himself to no.5.

“My second opinion is that, why don’t you open with Dinesh Karthik? Why Rohit Sharma doesn’t go at No.5. See, that is my point. Why different rules for different players?” Akash Chopra said.

He also went on to say that too much tinkering and changing in the batting lineup could make a batter insecure and also he might end up playing for his place in the team and not actually what the team requires. Moreover, he said that constant shuffling leads to loss of self confidence in the batter.

“It’s a little too much [on opening conundrum]. [It] makes no sense [Suryakumar Yadav at the top] because you opened with Rishabh Pant in England. The best-case scenario can be Surya scoring three centuries in the next three matches. The worst-case scenario could be him scoring just 30 runs in three games. So, the batter would manage around 60 runs in the entire T20 series.”

“It comes after below-par performances in ODIs. So, suddenly, the game is all about confidence. If you snatched away the confidence of the batter, then what did you actually gain?” He added.

India and West Indies are set to lock horns with each other in the third T20I on Tuesday at St. Kitts.