Team India surprised their fans who were ecstatic as Rishabh Pant walked out to partner skipper Rohit Sharma as the opening pair for Men in Blue. Pant, who usually bats in the middle order, was promoted in the second ODI versus West Indies in the absence of Ishan Kishan.
KL Rahul, who was unavailable for the first ODI owing to some personal reasons made his return to the team in the second ODI, and Kishan had to make way for Rahul subsequently.
While many expected that KL would hence partner Rohit Sharma as the opening pair, Indian cricket fans were in for a surprise as Rishabh Pant came out to open the innings for Team India for the first time in his career.
Fans of Twitter meanwhile lauded the move, as they felt it's a good move and could prompt Pant to play responsibly. Earlier, the youngster has been accused of giving away his wicket, due to his smash and bang style of batting.
Here is how Twitterati reacted to Rishabh Pant opening the innings for India:
Unfortunately for the Indian team, the opening pair of Pant and Rohit Sharma couldn't make much impact as skipper Rohit Sharma was dismissed for a paltry 5 runs by Kemar Roach. Team India had scored 10 runs in 3.4 overs at the time of writing.
West Indies skipper Nicholas Pooran had won the toss earlier in the day, and he chose to field first.
