Why Rohit Sharma is not opening today: The Indian captain hasn’t opened the batting in the second innings today.
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During the second day of a one-off practice match between Leicestershire and India in Leicester, India have bundled out Leicestershire for 244 in 57 overs to gain a 2-run first-innings lead.
Having declared their innings on an overnight score of 246/8, Indian bowlers made the most of bowling-friendly conditions at the Uptonsteel Ground today.
Opening the bowling for his team, pacer Mohammed Shami made early inroads into the opposition’s batting unit which included him dismissing teammate Cheteshwar Pujara for a duck with the new ball.
Looking to start fresh after a dismal Indian Premier League 2022, India all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja was the pick of their bowlers with figures of 8-3-28-3 which included a dismissal of Rishabh Pant (76). Additionally, Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur also picked a couple of wickets each.
Why Rohit Sharma is not opening today?
The second innings of the warm-up match had a surprise for the Indian fans as captain Rohit Sharma didn’t accompany Shubman Gill as an opening batter.
Wicket-keeper batter Srikar Bharat, who had scored an unbeaten 70* in the first innings yesterday, has been promoted in the batting order. Not knew to opening the batting, Bharat has opened for a large part of his Ranji Trophy career at Andhra.
It is worth mentioning that there’s no official update around Sharma’s absence in the second innings. However, it appears to be a case of the team management wanting to try Bharat in a new role.
A usual method followed in practice matches, think-tanks tend to provide extended opportunities to rookie players in order to build their confidence. With the team management not asking for a replacement for injured batter KL Rahul, perhaps they are looking to prepare Bharat as a reserve opening batter for the upcoming one-off Test match against England.
