T20 World Cup: Virat Kohli to open alongside Rohit Sharma; Sanju Samson, Yashasvi Jaiswal miss out

NEW DELHI: Team India will have a new opening combination of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in their T20 World Cup opener against Ireland in New York.

As the India skipper announced at the toss that Sanju Samson and Yashasvi Jaiswal are not in the XI, it became evident that Kohli would be opening in the clash against the Irish.

Samson, who opened in the warm-up game was benched while Jaiswal was not even part of the clash against Bangladesh. Kohli, on the other hand, did not feature in the warm-up against Bangladesh.

Rohit's decision to bowl came after both Sri Lanka and South Africa found runs hard to come by on Monday in the first competitive match on a sluggish surface at a Long Island ground built specially for the tournament.

Rohit also said at the toss that three seamers -- Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah, a pace all-rounder (Hardik Pandya) and two spin all-rounders (Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel) are part of India's XI.

India have previously won all seven of their previous T20s against Ireland.

Rohit and Co. are bidding for their second T20 World Cup, with India having won the inaugural edition in 2007.

This tournament will also be Rahul Dravid's last as India coach. The former Test batsman's contract runs out at the end of the month and he will not reapply for the job, after almost three years in charge.

Teams

India: Rohit Sharma (capt), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wkt), Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj

Ireland: Paul Stirling (capt), Andrew Balbirnie, Lorcan Tucker (wkt), Harry Tector, Curtis Campher, George Dockrell, Gareth Delany, Mark Adair, Barry McCarthy, Josh Little, Ben White

Umpires: Alex Wharf (ENG), Chris Gaffaney (NZL)

TV umpire: Richard Kettleborough (ENG)

Match referee: David Boon (AUS)

(With inputs from AFP)