Rohit Sharma reveals team combination: Ishan Kishan to open, thinking of reuniting Kuldeep, Chahal

Mayank Agarwal has been added to the squad but he is serving mandatory quarantine period. Kishan was drafted into the ODI squad after Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer and Ruturaj Gaikwad were tested positive for COVID-19 and are now in isolation.

“Ishan Kishan is the only option we have and he will open with me,” Rohit said on the eve of the series-opener.

“Mayank was added in the squad and he is still in isolation. He came (joined) late and we have some rules in place. If someone is travelling, we have to put them in (mandatory 3-day) quarantine. He has still not finished his quarantine, so Ishan will open the innings.

“Unless there’s an injury as we have a training today and there is nothing of that sort,” he added.

Bringing back KulCha

Rohit Sharma on Saturday also said that playing spinners Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav together, fondly known as KulCha, is certainly on his mind and he will have a look at it in the upcoming ODI series against West Indies.

India is set to play three ODIs at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad from February 6 followed by the T20I series at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata from February 16.

Rohit was supposed to lead the side in the ODIs against South Africa, but a hamstring issue ruled him out, however, he has regained his fitness and is ready to lead the Men in Blue.

“Kuldeep and Chahal have been great performers for us in the past and they have created an impact in those years whenever they have played together, in the middle they were left out because of the combination we wanted to get. It is certainly on my mind to get them back together, Kuldeep especially,” said Rohit.

“We want to get Kuldeep in slowly, we do not want him to be rushed. It is important to give him some time to come into his own groove, we do not want to put him in a situation where we are asking too much from him also.

“I think for us, it is important that we handle the situation carefully. Both these players are important. Chahal played in South Africa and Kuldeep has just got back to the team and he needs to play a lot of games to get his rhythm back and we understand that,” he said.

When India takes the field on Sunday, it will become the first international team to play 1000 ODIs. Currently, at 999 matches, India accounts for 518 wins and 431 losses.

“There is not a lot that we need to change, we just need to adapt to different situations of the game. We have played good ODI cricket over the course of the past few years, one series loss is not the reason for us to panic.

“South Africa series was a great learning curve for us in terms of we did not do collectively as a team,” said Rohit.

“It is always important that everyone comes together. Going forward, the role clarity of certain individuals is important in the squad.

“If we can talk to the individuals about it, then we can get what we want at a different points from different individuals,” he added.