“Not a permanent thing”: Rohit Sharma confirms Shikhar Dhawan will replace Rishabh Pant as his opening partner in 3rd ODI

Shikhar Dhawan will replace Rishabh Pant: The Indian captain talked about their unique opening combination in the second ODI.

India white-ball captain Rohit Sharma has commenced his full-time captaincy career with a series victory against West Indies. India pulling off a 44-run victory in the second ODI at the Narendra Modi Stadium has gained them an unassailable 2-0 lead in this three-match series.

The fact that India have won the second ODI despite scoring 237/9 after being asked to bat by West Indies stand-in captain Nicholas Pooran speaks highly about their comeback in the second innings on Wednesday.

“Obviously, winning the series is a good feeling. There were some challenges. The [91-run] partnership between [Lokesh] Rahul and Surya [Suryakumar Yadav] had a lot of maturity. We got to a respectable total in the end. We knew we could fight it out. The entire unit came out and bowled superbly,” Sharma told Star Sports during the post-match presentation ceremony.

Sharma, who lauded his bowlers in general for bundling out the opposition for 193 in 46 overs, was wax lyrical about fast bowler Prasidh Krishna in particular. Playing his sixth ODI, Krishna picked career-best bowling figures of 9-3-12-4 to be declared Man of the Match for the first time in international cricket.

“I have never seen a spell like that in India for a long time now. Bowled with a lot of pace and kept it going. The others complimented him [Prasidh Krishna]. When you have five bowlers and Deepak [Hooda] being sixth, you always need to keep rotating the bowlers,” Sharma added.

Rohit Sharma confirms that Shikhar Dhawan will replace Rishabh Pant as his opening partner

India’s solitary change for this match lied in including vice-captain Lokesh Rahul for batter Ishan Kishan. When a lot of fans and experts were left dejected with the prospect of India opening the batting with Rahul yet again, India sent wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant (18) to partner Sharma at the top of the order.

Pant, who mis-timed a pull off Odean Smith in the 12th over, might not have justified his promotion but the move came as an intriguing one for fans. Not wanting to give false hopes, Sharma was quick clarify that opening the batting with Pant was just a one-off thing especially with veteran batter Shikhar Dhawan set to return in the third ODI after recovering from COVID-19.

“I have been asked to try different things, so that [opening with Rishabh Pant] was something different [laughs]. We wanted to try it one game and is not a permanent thing. Shikhar [Dhawan] should be back for the next game,” Sharma mentioned.

Having already won the series, India would be keen to provide more opportunities to reserve players in the last match of the series on February 11 at the same venue.