Abhishek fills Rohit's big shoes in big boost for T20 World Cup

The opener was the top run-getter as India won the T20I series 2-1 after the fifth game was washed out

- Sanjjeev K Samyal

Who will fill Rohit Sharma's shoes was the big question when the white-ball stalwart retired in the shortest format after winning the 2024 T20 World Cup final.

Among the three formats, competition for places in the India side is particularly intense in T20 because of the talent spurt due to the platform provided by IPL. There were quite a few options for opener for the selectors-Yashasvi Jaiswal was doing wonders for Rajasthan Royals, Shubman Gill was consistency personified for Gujarat Titans and Abhishek Sharma was blazing away for Sunrisers Hyderabad. To add to these options, when given the chance to open, Sanju Samson of Rajasthan Royals had played some blistering knocks.

Rohit had set a successful template of an all-out attacking opener, certainly not an easy role to live up to. With three months to go for the next T20 World Cup, Abhishek is the one who has emerged as a like-for-like replacement for Rohit. Equally flamboyant, he bats with the fearlessness of Rohit and looks set to lead India's batting at the home World Cup starting in February.