Making a comeback into the ODI squad after a gap of three years, Ishan Kishan scored a century at Lucknow. Having already cemented his spot in the T20 side, the left-hander now seems to have his eye on the ODI side. But once Kohli returns, there is no guarantee that he could find a slot in the XI. But India’s assistant coach Ryan Ten Doeschate revealed India will find ways to use Ishan, whose aggressive game is needed in the format.
“I think with Ishan, the only concern was ever could he transform himself from a T20 specialist into a 50-over player, potentially even a red-ball player. I think he showed that the other night. By nature, he’s very aggressive and we still feel there’s space for that in this team. You do have some solid batters around him if you include them in the team. With Shubman and Virat, you have two of the more classical guys who are going to bat through the innings. He is a very versatile player. He can bat on top of the order, he can bat in the middle and obviously the fact that he’s a top gloveman as well. I think he ticks a lot of boxes and so on. Like I said, purely for versatility is something you want in your squad,” the former Dutch captain said.
With India having already wrapped up the ODI series, Ten Doeschate admitted that the hosts will experiment with their combination in the third and final match against Afghanistan in Chennai on Saturday.
In the previous match at Lucknow, India slotted Yashasvi Jaiswal at the top with Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill moving to No 3 with Ishan Kishan coming at No 4. While the batting unit may just see a rejig in the order, it is in the bowling front where India are set to rest Arshdeep Singh rest.
“We will be making a few changes from the first two games. I think part of the brief coming into the series was we wanted to try a few different combinations and give everyone a fair share of games. If someone like Arshdeep does very well in the first two games, he can take a rest tomorrow,” Ten Doeschate said.
Before the start of the series with Virat Kohli missing, bowling coach Morne Morkel had hinted that KL Rahul could the former captain’s slot at No 3. But so far that hasn’t happened and Ten Doeschate said with Jaiswal and Nitish Kumar Reddy needing gametime, a promotion to Rahul may have to wait.
“It is a consideration. The versatility of their batting line-up is fantastic. I don’t think KL will bat at No.3 tomorrow. We want to have a good look at Yashasvi as well. Obviously he didn’t get around to the last game, so he will probably get another game, I would have thought. Maybe with the combination, we need to look at Nitish again. Unfortunately, he couldn’t play the last game and he needs to start as well. So I would imagine five batters plus Nitish and Washy (Washington Sundar),” the assistant coach said.
