T20 World Cup 2024: Sunil Gavaskar picks India’s playing XI against Ireland, backs Kohli and Rohit to open the innings

Legendary Sunil Gavaskar wants Virat Kohli to open with Rohit Sharma in the T20 World Cup opener against Ireland. Kohli recently opened the innings with Faf du Plessis for RCB in the IPL and delivered for the franchise. Yashasvi Jaiswal didn’t play the warm-up match against Bangladesh on Saturday whereas Kohli was rested and thus many feel that India will back Kohli and Rohit as openers.

Virat Kohli scored 741 runs in 15 innings at an average of 61.75 and a strike rate of 154.69 in IPL 2024. Kohli ended the tournament as the highest run-getter and bagged the Orange Cap award. Thus, he played an instrumental role in taking RCB to the playoffs.

On the other hand, Rohit Sharma was Mumbai Indians’ top-scorer with 417 runs in 14 matches of IPL 2024 as he scored his runs at an average of 32.08 and a strike rate of 150. Sunil Gavaskar wants Yashasvi Jaiswal to bat at one down against Ireland.

“I don’t really like selecting teams because you can never satisfy everybody they’ll always be somebody’s favorite player who’s not being pick but here is my effort to try and pick the 11 for the game against Ireland,” Gavaskar told Star Sports about his ideal Team India XI.

“Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to open the batting along with Yashasvi Jaiswal at three Surya Kumar Yadav at four Rishabh Pant at five at number six, I would have Hardik Pandya number seven would be Ravindra Jadeja number eight mean not necessarily in that batting order Shivam Dube,” he added.

Meanwhile, the former Indian skipper picked only three specialist bowlers in Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, and Mohammed Siraj. Gavaskar selected three all-rounders – Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, and Ravindra Jadeja in his final XI.

India will begin their T20 World Cup campaign against Ireland on June 5th.Sunil Gavaskar’s India XI for T20 World Cup match vs Ireland: Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.