IND vs ENG ODIs | Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma will start as openers: Virat Kohli

India skipper Virat Kohli confirmed that Shikhar Dhawan, who was dropped from India’s T20I side after the first T20I of the recently concluded five-match series against England, will open along with Rohit Sharma in the first ODI of the three-match series against the same opponents starting on Tuesday, in Pune.

“As far as the opening partnership is concerned, Shikhar and Rohit will definitely start. When it comes to ODI cricket, I don’t think there is any issue or doubt over Rohit or Shikhar opening together. They have been amazing for us in the past few years,” said Kohli while speaking to the media in the pre-match media interaction on the eve of the first ODI.

Dhawan, though, has played only nine ODIs since he suffered a thumb injury against Australia in June 2019. Out of those nine matches, he has batted in only seven and has scores of 2, 36, 74, 96, 74, 30 and 16 in those outings. Although not extraordinary, these are quite decent numbers.

He was seen in good form during IPL 2020 as well, during which he amassed 618 runs at an average of over 40 and strike-rate of just a shade under 145.

However, Dhawan is under pressure to retain his position considering the plethora of top-order batsmen India have now. Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan have proven their ability with fabulous performances in the T20I series whereas the likes of Prithvi Shaw and Devdutt Padikkal are knocking on the doors of the ODI setup as well. So Dhawan needs to keep himself amongst the runs in order to retain his place in the Indian side.

The ODI series is being played now despite the focus of both the teams of the T20 World Cup scheduled to be played in October-November. The World Test Championship is there to be played in June as well and hence, the ODIs seem like an irrelevant format at present.

Kohli went on to day that this scheduling is something they can’t control, so they have to focus on managing their workload properly.

“Scheduling is something that is not in our control. For us, it is an international game. Every international game is important and has value. It is an opportunity to represent your team and for us that remains the sole focus. Yes, as I have said many times in the past that scheduling and workload is something that everyone has to be aware of and keep an eye out for. Especially in today’s day and age where you just don’t know when the restrictions might come in and you may even have to play in bubbles in the future,” Kohli added.