Irfan Pathan believes Indian openers will face 'a lot of difficulties' in WTC final vs NZ
                     Irfan Pathan believes Indian openers will face 'a lot of difficulties' in WTC final vs NZ 
 
The much-awaited ICC World Test Championship final is going to take place from June 18. However, former India player Irfan Pathan feels that 
India openers Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill could face a lot of difficulties while batting in Southampton. 
Image source by twitter 
 
It is also noteworthy that, Team India will play against New Zealand at The Ageas Bowl in Southampton. While New Zealand has toppled India 
in the points table and topped the chart, both the best teams in world cricket are ready to take on each other with more or less equal strength 
as well. However, the pitch is expected to help the pacers and because of this Indian batsmen could face trouble by Tim Southee, Trent Boult, 
and others. 
"I will definitely back Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill, but they will have a lot of difficulties because of the bowling in front of them; one gets 
the ball in, and the other takes it away. Both of them will try to pitch the ball up, and there the two openers have to manage," Irfan Pathan 
said during a discussion on Star Sports. "We are talking about Shubman Gill that his performance in the IPL were not that good, but that is a 
different format. He started off very well in the red-ball format in Australia. You don't forget that so soon, and you go according to the 
format." 
Meanwhile, former India wicket-keeper batsman Parthiv Patel has hoped that India opener Rohit Sharma will continue to score big in the 
upcoming summit clash as well. 
 
 
Image source by twitter 
"He (Rohit) will try to be cautious in the first one hour. The sort of approach Rohit Sharma has shown as a Test opener, he is playing very tight, 
and we see proactiveness in his foot movement. So I feel he has adapted very well as a Test opener," he said during the same discussion. 
"Once he gets set, we know he plays brilliant shots. It might have been the white-ball format when he scored the five hundreds in the 2019 
World Cup, but that will be in his mind. So he will be thinking that he can play his shots once he survives the first one hour." 
 
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