Former cricketer Irfan Pathan was one of the few experts, who supported a left-right combination at the top batting order, with this mindset, he picked Yashavi Jaiswal as captain Rohit Sharma’s opening partner.
He backed this idea so much so, that he even recommended Jaiswal as a part-time spin-bowling option, during his discussions with star sports.
But recently, Pathan took a U-turn, on his words to drop Jaiswal while deciding on the possible playing XI for the T20 world cup match against Ireland, on the basis of the conclusions he drew from warm-up match against Bangladesh.
As Jaiswal didn’t bat for India. Instead, Rohit opened with Sanju Samson due to Virat kohli’s absence.
A surprising opening pair 🧐@RishabhPant17 at number 3 👀@IrfanPathan has a lot of surprises in his #TeamIndia‘s XI for their opening #T20WorldCup fixture against Ireland!
Do you agree with Pathan’s picks? 🤔
📺 | #INDvIRE | 5th June, 6 PM | #T20WorldCupOnStar pic.twitter.com/hhlJH72sau
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) June 3, 2024
Instead, the former T20 world cup winner picked Virat Kohli as Rohit’s opening partner, and he positioned Rishabh Pant to batter No.3 role.
As pant had hit 53 off 32 balls against Bangladesh, thus, resulting in fresh possibility of new line up for India.
Then, Irfan Pathan also added Suryakumar Yadav at position number 4, followed by inclusion of Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja orderwise.
In the bowling department, Kuldeep Yadav was designated as India team only specialist bowler. Which was followed by inclusion of Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh and Mohammed Siraj.
However, pathan clarified, that the line-up might change, after Indian team moves to Caribbeans in knockout stage, with one pacer making way for Axar patel.
Meanwhile, India is scheduled to face Ireland in their Group A opener on June 5 at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, followed by an eagerly anticipated match against arch-rivals Pakistan on June 9.
