I would like Suryakumar Yadav to continue as opener – Danish Kaneria

Contrary to popular opinion, former Pakistan spinner Danish Kaneria wants Suryakumar Yadav to continue playing as an opener for the Indian team. Yadav opened the innings in the four T20Is against West Indies but a lot of cricket experts reckon the right-hander should bat in the middle order.

The 31-year-old from Mumbai scored a fine knock of 76 runs off just 43 balls in the third T20I and helped his team in chasing down the score of 165 runs while batting as an opener against the Windies.

In the rest of the matches, Yadav had gotten off to starts but could not convert them into substantial scores. In fact, it has been noticed that Yadav is versatile to bat at any position in the batting order and he can also score runs all around the ground.

Yadav had also scored a magnum opus knock of 117 runs off just 55 balls in the third T20I against England while batting in the middle order.

“With Rohit Sharma, I would like Suryakumar Yadav to continue as an opener. His consistency with Rohit has been brilliant as an opener. KL Rahul is coming back into the team. I want him to stay down the order. He has batted in different situations, and he has scored runs in all situations as well. So, I want Surya and Rohit to open,” Danish Kaneria said in a video on his YouTube channel.

However, one feels India will back the opening pair of Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul in the Asia Cup and the T20 World Cup, and Suryakumar Yadav will take back the number four place in the batting order.

India has a lot of options and they have also experimented with their resources in the recent past. However, they will look to finalize their batting order before the T20 World Cup.

India will begin their Asia Cup campaign against Pakistan at Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai on 28th August.

Squad: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Deepak Hooda, Yuzvendra Chahal.