IND vs WI 2022: “Why don’t you open with Dinesh Karthik?” – Aakash Chopra slams decision to use Suryakumar Yadav as opener

Team India’s decision to promote Suryakumar Yadav as an opener in the ongoing India vs West Indies T20 series has surprised a lot of people.

Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra is stunned by team management’s decision to waste Yadav as an opener

Amid the ongoing debate regarding the opening conundrum, Chopra feels there is no sense in trying Suryakumar as an opener.

He has scored 24 and 11 in the first two outings at the top of the order.

During a collaboration with Star Sports presenter Jatin Sapru on YouTube, Chopra questioned why there are 'different rules' for different players

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?”

Ahead of the India vs West Indies third T20I, Chopra further stated that such experimentation could shatter the confidence of the batter.

He added:

“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."

He further noted:

"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?”

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IND vs WI 2022: “We want the guys to be flexible”- Rohit Sharma

India captain Rohit Sharma on Monday made it clear that team management wants batters to be able to play ‘anywhere’ ahead of the T20 World Cup. Speaking at the toss ahead of the second T20I, he said:

“We want the guys to bat anywhere and don’t want them to be batting in specific positions. We want the guys to be flexible. There are two ways to look at it depending on certain players.”

Meanwhile, pressure is piling on Surykumar Yadav to deliver regardless of the position he comes out to bat.

He has failed to play big innings in his last eight matches in white-ball formats. His last century came in England during the T20Is at No.4.