NEW DELHI: India should use Yashasvi Jaiswal as skipper Rohit Sharma’s opening partner in the T20 World Cup next month and play Rishabh Pant as the preferred wicket-keeper to ensure left-handed variety in their batting lineup, former all-rounder Yuvraj Singh said.

Virat Kohli has been in red-hot form as opener for Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) and is the season’s leading scorer with 708 runs from 14 matches.

Yuvraj preferred harnessing left-handed Jaiswal with right-handed Sharma at the top of the batting order to be followed by Kohli.

Suryakumar Yadav, currently the top ranked T20 batter, is nearly certain to retain his number four slot.

“I think Rohit and Jaiswal should definitely open,” Yuvraj, who was part of India’s victorious T20 World Cup team in 2007, told the International Cricket Council.

“Virat has been batting at number three (in T20 internationals) and that’s his position. You get Surya at four and then you got a couple of big options.

“I’d like to see a couple of left-hand, right-hand combinations because it is harder to bowl at two combinations all the time.” For the same reason, Yuvraj, a left-handed batter himself who famously hit England’s Stuart Broad for six sixes in an over during the 2007 World Cup, would pick Pant over Sanju Samson even though both wicketkeepers have been in great form in the IPL.

“I’d probably go for Rishabh,” said Yuvraj, who is an ambassador of the June 1-29 showpiece in West Indies and the United States.

“Obviously Sanju is also in great form, but Rishabh (is a) left-hander, and I believe that Rishabh has massive potential to win games for India, which he has done in the past.”

India begin their Group ‘A’ campaign against Ireland on June 9 in New York and clash with arch-rivals Pakistan four days later.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2024