Asia Cup: Rohit-Gill pair joins elite league of Indian openers with 121-run partnership

Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill decided to fight fire with fire against the Pakistan pacemen as they put up a blazing 121-run opening partnership in their Super Four clash of Asia Cup in Colombo on Sunday. India had reached 147/2 when rains stopped play at the R. Premadasa Stadium. 

The Indian skipper, a giant of the white ball game, reached his personal landmark of 50 half-centuries in the ODIs while the duo joined the league of some of the illustrious Indian opening pairs this afternoon.

They became the sixth pair to stitch together back-to-back century stands after their unbeaten 147-run effort against qualifiers Nepal on September 4. 

A look at the previous pairs can be awe-inspiring: Raman Lamba and Kris Srikkanth; Ajay Jadeja and Sachin Tendulkar; Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar; Virender Sehwag and Tendulkar; and Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan.  

Sent into bat by Babar Azam, the Rohit-Gill combination made the most of the favourable batting conditions – milking the dangerous Shaheen Afridi who was wayward in the powerplay after his sensational four-wicket haul in their abandoned match last Sunday.

The partnership was eventually broken by leg spinner Shadab Khan when he lured Rohit to a catch at the deep for a blazing 56 from 45 balls while Gill smashed 58 from 52 deliveries. Under the playing conditions, there is a reserve day for this particular Super Four match on Monday.    

Incidentally, they openers also bucked a trend of poor starts against a quality Pakistan pace attack over their meetings in last two years. Last Sunday, India lost their first wicket in Rohit with 15 runs on the board, while the ones before were 7 (T20 World World Cup in 2022), 54 and 1 (Asia Cup, 2022).