Ishan Kishan will be opening the innings for Team India alongside skipper, Rohit Sharma’s opening partner for the first ODI against the West Indies on Sunday. In a media conference on the eve of the opening game at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, Rohit confirmed that with Mayank Agarwal still in mandatory quarantine, “Ishan Kishan is the only option” available for the opening role.

On Saturday, Rohit Sharma said, “Ishan will open. Mayank was added to the squad, but he is still in isolation because he came late. We have some rules where the players joining the team will have to be under quarantine. He still has not finished his quarantine period, so Ishan will open the innings tomorrow. Unless there is an injury. We have training today, and let’s hope nothing of that sort [happens]…”

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Ishan Kishan was initially not part of the Indian ODI squad, but with three cricketers – Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, and Ruturaj Gaikwad – testing positive for COVID-19, he was drafted into the Indian team. Rohit also said that he “will have to take it from where Virat left” and added that the team does not want to rush things with Kuldeep Yadav, who returns to the team after a long injury lay-off.

Talking about the same further, Rohit Sharma said, “With COVID, it is so uncertain to predict what is going to happen and if anyone [contracts] it, how long will it take to recover. Every individual is different. We have seen that sometimes it takes seven days to recover, or sometimes, it even takes 14 days. So, we have no idea. At the moment, all three of them are in isolation and they are doing pretty well, which is a good thing.”

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Talking about how the team handles a crisis situation, the newly-appointed limited-overs captain said: “There could be times when you see people testing positive at the last minute and you have to make a change and get someone else. All the boys who are part of the team understand that an opportunity may come at any point and they all will have to be ready for it and it might not be their preferred position to bat, but they will have to do it for the team.”