Former India player turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra believes India captain Rohit Sharma’s place as an opener in India’s ODI side for the 2023 World Cup is fixed. India will take on the West Indies in a three-match ODI series, with the first game to take place in Bridgetown, Barbados, on Thursday, July 27. Rohit will lead the 17-member Indian squad in the series and he is likely to do the same in the mega event to be played at home later this year.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra said: “Let’s start with the captain. Take his name and the debate is over. The player’s name is Rohit Sharma. Interestingly, he is not too far from the 10000-run mark. We have not celebrated him enough, which across the board is a mistake. He is an absolute white-ball legend but he hasn’t been the center of discussion or attraction. What was the reason for that? I am not going to go there at all but the truth is that Rohit Sharma is a runaway match-winner.”
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Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma has scored 9825 runs at an excellent average of 48.63 in 243 ODIs. He has hit 30 centuries, including three double hundreds, and 48 fifties in the format. However, Rohit Sharma scored 648 runs at an average of 81.00 in the 2019 World Cup as well.
Aakash Chopra further added: “In the last World Cup, he struck five centuries but despite that India did not win. So it was not his mistake, he scored a lot of runs and that too in England. So Rohit Sharma is the captain and opener, so he is definitely there.”
Meanwhile, the veteran believes Shubman Gill is the other player who will open for India. However, Gill has scored 1311 runs at an average of 65.55 in 24 ODIs. He has hit four centuries, including a double hundred against New Zealand earlier this year, and five fifties in his 24 innings as well.
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“Along with him, the other player is Shubman Gill. There isn’t much scope for a debate there as well although we can do it just for the sake of it. There can be a debate in Test cricket but there is no debate here at this point in time. So Shubman Gill is also a certainty. You will see both of them open,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
