Unfortunate For Ishan Kishan….: Rohit Sharma Sends Heartfelt Message To Opener After Benching Him Vs Pakistan

Ishan Kishan has been dropped against Pakistan. Photo: AP

India welcomed back a fit-again Shubman Gill in the playing XI for the 2023 World Cup match against Pakistan. With Gill back, the Men in Blue had to drop Ishan Kishan. India captain Rohit Sharma sent a heartfelt message to Ishan after dropping him and said that it was unfortunate that he had to be benched.

“We will bowl first, cannot get bigger than this, fantastic atmosphere. Sure lot of us are going to experience something really extraordinary. It’s a good track, not going to change much, dew could be a big factor and keeping that in mind, we want to bowl first. We want to keep striving for the best, we want to come out there and give our best in every game. Keeping the atmosphere in the team relaxed is the most important thing in a tournament like this,” Rohit said.

“Gill is back in place of Ishan, unfortunate for Ishan to miss out, feel for him, he stepped up when we needed him. Gill has been a special player for us over the past year or so, especially at this ground and we wanted him back.”

Gill was down with fever before the start of the tournament and he missed the first two matches against Australia and Afghanistan. He didn’t travel to Delhi for the Afghanistan game and stayed back in Chennai.

The in-form batsman flew to Ahmedabad few days before the Pakistan game and attained full fitness. On the eve of the game, Rohit revealed that Gill was 99 percent fit and he made his comeback into the playing XI for the marquee game.

This was the only change that India made in their playing XI. R Ashwin stayed on the bench as Shardul Thakur retained his spot in the final XI. India have won the toss and opted to bowl first.

India’s playing XI against Pakistan: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj