Batting coach Vikram Rathour reveals why Ishan Kishan opened for India instead of Rohit Sharma and who made the call

Abu Dhabi: Team India batting coach Vikram Rathour Tuesday said the decision to send Ishan Kishan as KL Rahul's opening partner was taken by the team management including the regular opener Rohit Sharma.

"The team management including Rohit himself decided to send Ishan Kishan as an opening partner to KL Rahul," he said. "It also made sense because of the left-and-right combination up the order," the batting coach said on the eve of the group stage match against Afghanistan of ICC Men's T20 World Cup here.

The ploy, however, failed as Ishan had walked back to the pavilion under three overs.

Ishan came into the reckoning after Suryakumar Yadav's unavailability to play against New Zealand due to back spasm, he said.

After Captain Virat Kohli and pacer Jasprit Bumrah, Rathour also blamed the low and slow pitches of Dubai for India's poor batting display in the last two matches of the ongoing ICC Men's T20 World Cup.

"Batting first has been difficult on these pitches. They are low and slow. It is difficult to score on these surfaces. Therefore, we failed to play big shots and get enough runs on board," Rathour told reporters on the eve of the group stage match against Afghanistan.

This comment comes in the wake of zero boundaries scored between 6-15 overs by India against New Zealand, which is something very unusual in the shortest format of the game.

Not only India, Rathour said, but all the teams batting first have found it difficult to play shots on these tracks. "Rotating strike in middle overs also is a tough ask for batsmen," he added.

India will be up against a confident Afghanistan, who would like to add salt to their wounds, especially after losing the last two games against Pakistan and New Zealand.

Afghanistan are coming into the match with two wins behind them out of the three they played, and would like to use all their might against India with the help coming from Mohhamed Nabi and Rashid Khan.

As expected, Afghanistan have defeated Scotland and Namibia, and almost pulled off the third against Pakistan in their last encounter, but Asif Ali took the game away by tonking four sixes in an over.

On replacing Hardik Pandya who has been dismal with his bat so far, Rathour said the Mumbaikar's replacement is not an issue, but the problem lies in the two-paced wicket in Dubai, which makes difficult for the batsmen to play shots.

"Hardik and Ravindra Jadeja are good finishers. Up the order, Surya and Virat have been good. The problem we have is that we can only field eleven players. That apart, we don't see lack of Hardik’s replacement as an issue," he said.

"The problem, however, has been the pitch. It is double-paced. Big shots are not easy to execute which is more to do with the nature of the surface in Dubai," he added. (UNI)