TimesofIndia.com in Chennai: WITH Yashasvi Jaiswal scoring his second century in the last three ODIs, pressure is mounting on the selectors to decide the veteran’s future Rohit Sharma. Although the 39-year-old survived a jittery start in the third ODI, he scored a blistering 79 and put on 170 runs for the first wicket with Yashasvi Jaiswal.Rohit, given a reprieve at the start of his innings, took Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan to clean-up before being dismissed. In the three-match series, his scores are 16, 48 and 79. But are those knocks enough to secure his place for the upcoming tour of England? And if he does, where does that leave the 24-year-old, who, despite his ODI career without a start, has been in good form and tried to make the most of every opportunity he got? “It’s good to have a headache when all your players are playing,” the captain Shubman Gill he told reporters when asked about India’s opening combination for the upcoming tour of England.“The squad will be announced either tomorrow or in the next few days, so we’ll look at the squad and then put out the best 11 in England.”Asked where Jaiswal is if everyone is fit, Gill said: “We will have to see where everyone’s fitness is. If everyone is fit, like I said, we will formulate the best possible XI based on that.”However, the skipper had special praise for Jaiswal and called him “unfortunate” not to get the long rope in ODIs.“We all know he’s a phenomenal player. It’s not easy for any player because, when everyone is available, unfortunately he’s the one who sometimes misses out,” Gill said.“Since Virat bhai was not available in this series, he got a chance to play a few matches and today he played very well. We hope he will continue this form and continue to grab the opportunities he gets.”“I think a lot of boxes are ticked,” he told broadcasters at the post-match presentation.“We talked about keeping the intensity going in the middle overs and one of the things we also talked about was how can we continue to create opportunities in the middle overs as a bowling unit and, as a batting unit, how can we continue to push for extra runs in the middle overs.“Going to England, the conditions will be a bit more similar to what we have in South Africa. Not quite the same, but still close. So the kind of combination we’d like to play there, hopefully with all the players fit, should make it another great series for us,” he said.
