WI vs IND: Was surprised to see Suryakumar open with Rohit, says R. Sridhar

A lot of fans and critics have been surprised to see Suryakumar Yadav open with Rohit Sharma in the ongoing T20I series against West Indies, including former India fielding coach R. Sridhar.

Opening the innings, Suryakumar is at the top of the runs table after three games with 111 runs at an average of 37. He scored a match-winning 76 off 44 balls to help India win the third T20I last week and go 2-1 up in the five-match T20I series.

With KL Rahul being sidelined for the last two series, Team India has decided to experiment with their opening combination. During the T20I series in England, Rishabh Pant opened with Rohit.

When Suryakumar walked out along with Rohit in the first T20I, Sridhar said he was a bit surprised and he immediately checked to see if Pant was in India's playing XI.

"When I saw Suryakumar walking out to bat with Rohit, I was a bit surprised with that move. Immediately, I checked to see if Rishabh Pant was playing the game. And he was. So, obviously, there is something going on there that we don't know yet. There is something happening inside the Indian change room, that we are not aware about.

Otherwise, I don't see this management chopping and changing batting order that easy, because they are known to back their players and give them opportunities to show their skills and prove their mettle. So I was quite surprised when Suryakumar walked in," Sridhar said in a video on Cricket.com.

Rahul was believed to be recovering well after his sports hernia surgery, but he contracted covid last month and as a result, he could not fly out to the Caribbean to join Team India for the T20I series.

While Sridhar said that he was not aware of the reason behind the change, he believed making Suryakumar open could be a temporary arrangement.

"I don't know the reason why this change was made. I really don't know. Maybe Rishabh didn't want to open. Maybe India are looking at another opening option. Obviously, KL Rahul was supposed to go for this series but he couldn't, owing to Covid and then travelling and getting used to the condition.

It would have taken a lot of time so he chose to stay back. I am pretty sure this could be a stop-gap arrangement but like I said, there is probably something we don't know," added Sridhar.

Suryakumar recently climbed two spots to No. 2 in the latest ICC T20I batsmen's rankings. In fact, the Indian batter is just two points behind top-ranked Babar Azam.

The fourth T20I between India and West Indies is scheduled to be played on Aug. 6 in Florida.