Rathour explains why Kishan opened ahead of Rohit against Kiwis

Vikram Rathore

Long-time opener Rohit Sharma was fully taken into confidence before being replaced by Ishan Kishan at the top of batting order for India's T20 World Cup match against New Zealand, batting coach Vikram Rathour said on Tuesday.

India lost that game by eight wickets. Rathour said that Kishan's elevation was more about having a left-hander at the top of the order rather than having too many similar type of players in the middle-order.

"How things went was that Surya [Suryakumar Yadav] was having some back spasm the previous night and was not fit enough to take the field. The person coming in was of course Ishan and we know Ishan had done well as an opener as he has done well in the past," Rathour said.

"As far as who took that call, it's the whole management that sits and takes that call and, of course, Rohit himself is a part of that management. He was part of that discussion.

"It tactically made sense to have a left-hander up front, we didn't want too many lefties in the lower middle-order with Ishan, [Rishabh] Pant, [Ravindra] Jadeja. So technically, it made sense and that guy has batted well," he elaborated.

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