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'Made Up My Mind Seeing First Few IPL Games' - Rohit Sheds Light On Pant's T20 WC Selection

Rohit Sharma with Rishabh Pant in India nets (x.com)Rohit Sharma with Rishabh Pant in India nets (x.com)

Ahead of India's highly anticipated match against arch-nemesis Pakistan on June 9 at the Nassau County International Stadium, skipper Rohit Sharma addressed the press, where he spoke about team combination. 

Rohit spoke about Rishabh Pant and revealed that he had made up his mind about the southpaw's selection right after seeing him bat top of the order in the first few games of IPL 2024. 

In the interaction with reporters, the 37-year-old also revealed that the idea to send Pant at No.3 stemmed from the fact that Yashasvi Jaiswal could not find a place in the playing XI as India opted to open the innings with Rohit and Virat Kohli. 

Rohit added that India required a player with the counter-attacking skillset to bat at the top of the order. 

"Watched (Rishabh) Pant play the first few matches in the IPL and made up my mind. It was about having the right batting position. His counter-attacking skill will be helpful, given we cannot play Yashasvi. He has got an all-round game. Besides the openers, none of the other batting positions is fixed, unless it is a Super Over. We want to be flexible," stated Rohit Sharma.

Notably, Pant played his first international game for India since his fatal car crash in December 2022. The left-hand batter skipped the IPL 2023 but returned to lead the side in the 2024 edition and impressed the selectors with his performance. He scored 446 runs which included three fifties. 

Pant came to bat at No.3 for India against Ireland and recently, Men in Blue's batting coach Vikram Rathour confirmed that the side would go ahead with Rishabh at No.3.