Former cricketer Wasim Jaffer was shocked by Virat Kohli opening the innings in the second ODI between India and Bangladesh in Dhaka on December 7. Kohli was forced to open the innings after Rohit Sharma copped an injury blow on his finger while fielding during the second fixture.
Kohli, however, couldn’t make an impact as Ebadot Hossain rattled his woodwork when the Indian batter was on five runs. Jaffer believes India could have used either KL Rahul or Washington Sundar as Shikhar Dhawan’s opening partner in the absence of Rohit Sharma.
“I was a little surprised. Even though Virat Kohli opens the batting in T20s very often and we have seen that in franchise cricket as well as for India on a few occasions. But I thought maybe KL Rahul might open because he is used to opening the batting in the other two formats,” Jaffer was quoted as saying to ESPNcricinfo.
“If at all they wanted to open with somebody else, they could have looked at Washington Sundar. Everybody else can bat at their numbers. Virat Kohli can bat at 3, Shreyas Iyer can bat at 4 and KL can bat at 5. So I was a little surprised that Virat opened and with the shuffling of the batting order. Had KL or Washington opened, it would have made more sense,” Wasim Jaffer added.
India go down 2-0 against Bangladesh
India failed to chase down 272 runs and fell five runs short. Ebadot Hossain was the pick of the bowlers, returning with three wickets, while Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Shakib Al Hasan scalped two wickets apiece.
Shreyas Iyer was the lone fighter at the top, scoring 82 runs. Rohit Sharma, who suffered an injury, came out to bat at No.9 and played a valiant knock of 51 runs but couldn’t take his side over the line.
With the series done and dusted, India will look to salvage some pride in the third and final ODI scheduled to take place in Chattogram on December 10.
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