VVS Laxman picks KL Rahul as Rohit Sharma's opening partner for the England T20I series

Ahead of the five-match T20I series between India and England, VVS Laxman indicated who will partner Rohit Sharma to open the innings. The first match of the series will begin on March 12 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. This series will mark the beginning of India's preparation for the ICC T20 World Cup 2021, scheduled to take place later this year.

As the Indian management look to fix their team for the marquee event, Ravi Shastri will be concerned over Rohit Sharma's opening partner. With Rishabh Pant back to great form, it will be a battle between KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan to partner India's vice-captain. In the previous series against Australia, Dhawan opened the innings with Rohit Sharma, while KL Rahul batted in the middle-order. The wicket-keeper batsman was seen struggling with the bat.

While the cricketing experts continue to dwell over the selections, VVS Laxman opined that Karnataka batsman KL Rahul might open the innings along with Rohit Sharma in the five-match T20I series. In one of the recent Star Sports show, Cricket Connected, Laxman was quizzed about Dhawan's return to the Indian side after an excellent performance in the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

I will still back KL Rahul: VVS Laxman

Shikhar Dhawan had a fantastic outing in IPL 2020 for Delhi Capitals. He became the first batsman to score two back-to-back centuries in the same IPL season.

KL Rahul has scored 1542 runs in the 45 T20Is so far at an excellent strike rate of 144.92. Dhawan and Sharma have the most runs (1743) as a pair in the game's shortest format. But the Rahul-Rohit partnership has been more coherent. The duo has scored 1019 runs together at an impressive average of 59.94.

The Indian cricket team have announced a strong squad for the T20I series. It includes many of the IPL 2020 and Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 stars like Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Rahul Tewatia, and Varun Chakravarthy. The series will also see the return of Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Axar Patel in the shortest format of the game. India has rested Jasprit Bumrah from the 20-over matches against the visitors.

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