Rishabh Pant opening ODI record: Why is Ishan Kishan not playing today’s 2nd ODI between India and West Indies in Ahmedabad?

Rishabh Pant opening ODI record: The Indian wicket-keeper batter has been promoted to open the batting in Ahmedabad today.

During the second ODI of the ongoing West Indies tour of India in Ahmedabad, West Indies stand-in captain Nicholas Pooran has won the toss and chose to field.

“We will bowl first. We’re staying in the present, the goal is to play a good brand of cricket for the entire duration of the game,” Pooran told Star Sports at the toss in his first-ever ODI as a captain.

Having said that, Pooran has led West Indies in eight T20Is in the past. Readers must note that Pooran is leading West Indies because regular captain Kieron Pollard has suffered a niggle. All-rounder Odean Smith has replaced Pollard in the Playing XI.

India captain Rohit Sharma remained unaffected after being asked to bat first as he was looking to do the same upon winning the toss. Much like West Indies, India have also made a lone change by bringing in batter Lokesh Rahul for Ishan Kishan.

“It’s going to be a challenging one, we always wanted to bat first, put the score on the board and today gives us a chance. We’re not thinking too far ahead at the moment, if we do the things right, we will always do well and get the runs on the board. One change for us – KL Rahul comes back in place of Ishan Kishan,” Sharma told Star Sports at the toss.

Rishabh Pant opening ODI record

The decision to not give Kishan (left out to accommodate Rahul) more than one opportunity ended up disappointing a few fans. At first, it appeared that India would open the innings with Sharma and Rahul. With the latter doing much better in ODIs in the middle-order, there have been suggestions of batting him in the middle-order than at the top of the order.

However, fans were left surprised when Sharma walked out to open the batting with wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant. In what is a highly unconventional decision for the Indian team’s standards, the prospect of a hard-hitter in Pant opening the batting sounds fascinating.

It is for the first time that Pant is opening the batting in international cricket. The highest that he had batted in his 22-match ODI career before today was No. 4.

Exciting move to go with Pant as an opener. Give him the field restrictions, a harder ball and more opportunities to go aerial. May or may not be an instant hit but there’s an attempt to change the template.. also cements the middle order spot for KL.. #INDvWI

— Jatin Sapru (@jatinsapru) February 9, 2022

Rishabh Pant Under 19 record as opener

It is noteworthy that all of Pant’s 11 innings during his U-19 days had come as an opening batter. As an opener in YODIs, Pant had scored 454 runs at an average and strike rate of 41.27 and 110.46 respectively including one century and four half-centuries.

About the author

Dixit Bhargav

Born and brought up in Pathankot, Dixit Bhargav is an engineering and sports management graduate who works as a Cricket Editor at The SportsRush. Having written more than 10,000 articles across more than five years at TSR, his first cricketing memory dates back to 2002 when former India captain Sourav Ganguly had waved his jersey at the historic Lord’s balcony. What followed for an 8-year-old was an instant adulation for both Ganguly and the sport. The optimist in him is waiting for the day when Punjab Kings will win their maiden Indian Premier League title. When not watching cricket, he is mostly found in a cinema hall watching a Punjabi movie.

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