Ajinkya Rahane should replace Rohit Sharma as opener, says Sourav Ganguly

Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma on the field

Former India skipper Sourav Ganguly feels that Ajinkya Rahane should replace Rohit Sharma as the opener. Ganguly also said that Rahane had been successful as an opener for the shortest format of the game, where he had played a lot of match winning innings for Rajasthan Royals.

Coming as an opener for Rajasthan Royals in the Champions League 2013 tournament, Rahane was awarded the Golden Bat for being the leading run-scorer in the tournament.

In his column for Hindustan Times, Ganguly wrote: “In batting, [MS] Dhoni will have to decide between Rohit and Rahane to partner Shikhar followed by Virat [Kohli], Yuvraj [Singh], [Suresh] Raina, Dhoni, [Ravindra] Jadeja and the rest. It’s time for Rohit to stand up and deliver as Rahane has thrived as opener in this format with Rajasthan Royals and it will be difficult to keep him on the bench for long.”

Ganguly also stressed that while Amit Mishra and Ravichandran Ashwin did well for India in the first warm-up match against Sri Lanka, Ravindra Jadeja’s performance was a bit of a worry.

“The loss in the first warm-up game will hopefully be a wake-up call for India. It has thrown up a few questions. Amit Mishra once again bowled impressively, Ashwin delivered as the captain wanted him to, and Jadeja is one person whom you will not be able to keep aside in this format.”

Ganguly also spoke about the dew factor, since all the matches for India are scheduled at 7 pm.

“So, India will be tempted to go in with three spinners but the advantage of playing three tweakers could be negated by the dew factor. India play all their matches at 7pm under lights and thus will have to counter dew. The toss in this case will not come in to play. Generally, with the dew on, teams with better fast bowlers hold advantage as the ball skids off the pitch. Bhuvneshwar [Kumar] will have to get better. Can Dhoni finish his 4 overs with the new ball as he has done in Indian conditions in the past?”, Ganguly concluded.