Former England captain Michael Vaughan wants young India batter Yashasvi Jaiswal to open the batting for the team during the Super 8 stage of the T20 World Cup. During India's three group games, which were all played in New York, star batter Virat Kohli was promoted to open with captain Rohit Sharma. Kohli, however, went through a dry run so far scoring 1, 4 and 0 against Ireland, Pakistan and USA respectively.Ahead of India's opening game of the Super 8, Vaughan said that he would like to see Jaiswal open the batting, while Kohli can return to batting at no. 3.
Since all of India's Super 8 matches will be played in the Caribbean, Vaughan also wants Rishabh Pant to bat at no. 5. Pant had batted ahead of Suryakumar Yadav in the group stage.
"I love Yashasvi Jaiswal, I'd want him to be opening the batting. Virat or Rohit at No.3, I'm not too bothered by which right-hander goes to No.3. Shivam Dube is at No.5 but in the Caribbean I'd have Rishabh Pant in there. Yashasvi is an incredible player. He is such a good batter, I would want him in," Vaughan said on Cricbuzz.
Vaughan feels India have made mistakes in the past by not putting enough left-handed batters in the team.
"I like the fact that they have gone with left-handers. I thought not having enough left-handers was a mistake from India in the past so I can kind of understand that but I would want Jaiswal in my team," he also pointed out.
Meanwhile, India's final group match against Canada was washed out on Saturday in Florida.
India head into the Super 8s with 7 points with a Net Run Rate (NRR) of +1.137, finishing the Group A table at the top.
The USA became the second team to qualify for the Super 8 after their game against Ireland got washed out.
India Squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Kuldeep Yadav, Sanju Samson and Yuzvendra Chahal.