‘He can give you a brisk start’: Deep Dasgupta backs Prithvi Shaw as India’s third-choice opener for T20 World Cup – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

While Team India is still experimenting with their opening pair and batting line-up in order to find their best combination for the T20 World Cup 2022, former India cricketer Deep Dasgupta has proposed a new name as the third-choice opener for the marquee tournament.

Notably, Team India management has been experimenting with Rishabh Pant and Suryakumar Yadav as openers which was witnessed during the recently concluded T20I series against England and in the ongoing T20I series in West Indies.

However, Deep Dasgupta believes the selectors should try Prithvi Shaw as the third-choice opener.

“KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma would be my first choice [for T20 World Cup]. As a third opener, you can look at options like Prithvi Shaw, who has done extremely well in that opener slot and gives you a different skill set. The way he starts, he might not give you 70s, 80s, or hundreds, but he can give you a brisk start,” Dasgupta said in a video posted on YouTube by Crictracker.

Notably, Shaw last played for Team India against Sri Lanka in July in 2021. However, he was out for a duck in the only T20I for the Men in Blue. But, Shaw had a good IPL 2022 season where he played for Delhi Capitals and amassed 283 runs in 10 matches at an impressive strike of 152.97.

Also, Dasgupta considered Ishan Kishan as another possibility for the position, but as per him, the aggressive Mumbai Indians opener had lost his mojo recently.

“Ishan [Kishan], if you look at the internationals, he’s done alright. He starts well but lost his mojo a bit now in the last few games,” he said.

Also, considering that numerous new players have been added to Team India after the completion of the IPL 2022 and with many players at their disposal, Dasgupta feels India can field a team with three wicket-keepers.

“There are a lot of wicket-keepers who are also good batters. They can fit into not only as keeper-batters but just as batters. Ishan Kishan, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Dinesh Karthik. Some players are still in work-in-progress mode like Jitesh Sharma. He has done well in IPL,” the former wicket-keeper opined.

“I think there are quite a few options. I am also looking at them from a batting perspective. In such a case, you play 2-3 wicket-keepers in the playing XI. For example- KL Rahul as an opener, Rishabh Pant in the middle-order and Dinesh Karthik as a finisher,” he added.​

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