"KL Rahul will open in the World Cup, Virat Kohli is our third opener" - Rohit Sharma

Virat Kohli will open in some matches and he is India's third opening batter, said Rohit Sharma. Virat Kohli recently scored his maiden T20I hundred while opening the batting for India in the recently concluded Asia Cup. But skipper Rohit Sharma said that KL Rahul is the first choice opener for the World Cup. 

"For us, when we try and do something new, it doesn't mean that is permanent. We understand the quality of all the players and what they bring to us. We do understand that, but yeah it is an option for us. We will keep that in mind that since we haven't taken a third opener, he (Kohli) can obviously open. He opens for his franchise and has done really well. It is a definite option for us" - Indian Captain Rohit Sharma 

"I have had a chat with Rahul bhai that we will have to open with Virat in some matches because he is our third opener. We saw that in the last match and we are quite happy with what we saw. I don't think we will experiment for that position a lot." - Rohit added.

Rohit also pointed out that KL Rahul's contributions have gone unnoticed and he has a key role to play for India in the upcoming T20 World Cup.

"KL Rahul, according to me, will play the World Cup, and open. His performances for India tend to go unnoticed. He is a very important player for India. If you look at his record over the last two-three years, it is very good. I don't think it is right to not consider one performance because someone else has performed. We are very clear what is cooking but I want to make it clear for people. He is a very, very important and a quality player, and a match winner as well. His presence at the top is very, very crucial for us".

Mohammad Shami has been ruled out of the T20I series against Australia, and Umesh Yadav replaced him in the squad. India missed their key bowlers during the Asia Cup and struggled in the pace bowling department. Now with the return of Jasprit Bumrah and Harshal Patel, India now almost have a full-strength pace bowling attack.

"We always wanted to have variety in our attack. we never wanted to go into the World Cup with a one-dimensional attack, the five seamers who are part of the World Cup team bring different things to us, and then we've got three quality spinners".

Rohit also talked about India's new aggressive batting style and said " We will continue to play like that. That is something we spoke quite clearly right at the beginning. Everyone is quite comfortable with that. At the same time we know what our second line of defence is. We spend a lot of time talking about these kind of things. Guys are very clear on how to bat at 10 for 3, and how to bat at 50 for no loss. All those things have been discussed a lot at length. Now it is all about going and executing it.