TimesofIndia.com in Chennai: With Yashasvi Jaiswal scoring his second century in the last three ODIs, the pressure is mounting on the selectors to decide the future of veteran Rohit Sharma. Although the 39-year-old survived a jittery start in the third ODI, he went on to score an eye-catching 79 and put on 170 runs for the opening wicket with Yashasvi Jaiswal.Rohit, who got a reprieve early in his innings, took Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan to the cleaners before getting dismissed. In the three-match series, his scores are 16, 48 and 79. But are those knocks enough for him to secure his place for the upcoming England tour? And if he does, where does that leave the 24-year-old youngster, who, despite his stop-start ODI career, has been in rollicking form and has tried to maximise every opportunity he has got? “It is a good kind of headache to have when all your players are performing,” captain Shubman Gill told reporters when he was asked about India’s opening combination for the upcoming England tour.“The squad will be announced either tomorrow or in the next couple of days, so we will look at the squad and then put out the best XI in England.”When asked where Jaiswal stands if everyone is fit, Gill said: “We will have to see where everyone’s fitness stands. If everyone is fit, as I said, we will formulate the best possible XI based on that.”However, the skipper had special praise for Jaiswal and called it “unfortunate” that he has not been getting a long rope in ODIs.“We all know he’s a phenomenal player. It’s not easy for any player because, when everyone is available, he’s unfortunately the one who sometimes misses out,” said Gill.“Since Virat bhai wasn’t available in this series, he got the opportunity to play a couple of games, and today he played really well. Hopefully, he’ll continue this form and keep grabbing the opportunities he gets.”“I think a lot of the boxes are ticked,” he told broadcasters at the post-match presentation.“We spoke about keeping the intensity in the middle overs, and one of the things we also discussed was how we can keep creating opportunities in the middle overs as a bowling unit and, as a batting unit, how we can keep pushing for extra runs in the middle overs.“Going to England, the conditions will be a little more similar to what we get in South Africa. Not quite the same, but still close. So the kind of combination that we would be looking to play there, hopefully with all the players fit and ready, should make it another great series for us,” he said.
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