Kanpur: In spite of losing the first T20 game against England here Thursday by seven wickets, India skipper Virat Kohli defended his decision to open the innings in Rohit Sharma’s absence.
“I open in IPL and that is a T20 tournament. So I have an idea (of how to go about it) and that is why I went in to open,” Kohli told reporters after the game Thursday. My opening gives more balance to the team,” Kohli said after the match.
“You then can play an extra batsman in the middle-order, a player like Suresh Raina gets more dangerous at No.3, so when Rohit is not around as an opener, I can anytime step up because it provides more balance. If Rohit was around, no doubt, he would open with (KL) Rahul. But with him not being there, this is the best option for us,” added the Indian skipper.
India stuttered their way to 148 for three at the Green Park Stadium here with MS Dhoni (36 n o, 27b, 3×4) and Suresh Raina (34, 23b, 3×4, 1×6) emerging top scorer. For England, all-rounder Moeen Ali (2/21) achieved his career-best T20 figures.
England were never troubled in the chase as skipper Eoin Morgan (51, 38b, 1×4, 4×6) and Joe Root (46, 45b, 4×4) anchored the chase brilliantly. Yuzvendra Chahal (2/27) and Parvez Rasool (1/32) shared the three England wickets to fall.
Kohli acknowledged that the team want better consistency from openers after another failure Thursday from Rahul. “Obviously, it is one area we need to work on. All teams want their openers to fire. But you also need to understand that it is difficult to get (a lot of) openers of international standards and that is why you have to back the openers that you have,” Kohli pointed out.
Kohli admitted that England were the better side on the day. “Yes, they controlled the flow of the game and as we lost wickets at regular intervals, we could not get going. A 160-plus score would have been par on this wicket. We were 10-15 runs short,” lamented Kohli.
Press Trust of India