T20 World Cup: India should dump their conservative approach and play Pant as opener

After the chastening defeat to South Africa on a fast and bouncy Perth wicket, India will be looking to bounce back on the more batting friendly conditions at Adelaide Oval when they take on Bangladesh in their penultimate match of the Super 12 at the ICC T20 World Cup on Wednesday.

With four points from three matches, India are currently occupying the second place on the points table in Group 2 behind leaders South Africa (five points from three matches).

India and Bangladesh are level on points, but Rohit Sharma's team are sitting above the Tigers in the standings on the back of their superior Net Run Rate.

The Bangladesh match may well present Rohit one of his biggest selection headaches of his captaincy career.

Will he continue with KL Rahul, the team's vice-captain who is completely out of form?

While Rahul got into some sort of momentum in the home series against Australia and South Africa after his return from an injury lay-off, the elegant right-hander has just managed 17 runs in the first three matches against Pakistan, the Netherlands and South Africa in the World Cup.

Rahul is a delightful batsman when in full flow, but his weakness against the swinging in-coming delivery in crunch matches has been brutally exploited by the big teams.

The Bangladesh attack may not pose him the biggest challenge, but the Indian think-tank should look to grab the bull by its horn.

In Rishabh Pant, India have one of the most destructive batsmen across formats.

Pant has been overlooked in the first three matches as Dinesh Karthik, the ageless wonder who has thrived recently as the finisher, has been given the wicketkeeper-batsman's role in the first three matches.

But Karthik's back injury has opened the door for Pant's return to the Indian playing XI for the Bangladesh game on Wednesday.

While Karthik has not been ruled out yet, coach Rahul Dravid might not play him if he is not at hundred per cent.

So that will definitely bring Pant back into the team.

But the question is: will they play Pant in the middle-order which is already strong with Virat Kohli at number three followed by Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya.

The chances are that India will go with the conservative approach and send Pant at number five for the game against Bangladesh.

But for a team that aim to end their long drought for an ICC trophy, India should be bold in their approach and send Pant as Rohit's opening partner.

With two attacking batsmen at the start, India will send a strong message to the rest of the field.

And also the right-hand, left-hand combination can play havoc with the best of the bowling attacks in the tournament.

So what about Rahul then?

If Rahul can't hit his top-form as an opener, he will struggle to get into the middle-order featuring Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav and Pandya.

India should continue with the hard-hitting Deepak Hooda, who was brought into the playing XI for the last match, at number five.

The versatile Pandya at six will be followed by two capable bowling all-rounders, Axar Patel and Ravichandran Ashwin, at number seven and eight.

So playing Pant as an opener not only gives India a chance to get those flying starts, it also gives India the perfect team balance.

So will the team management now be brave enough to make this call?

We can only wait and watch.

India's ideal playing eleven: 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Rishabh Pant, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Deepak Hooda, 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Ravichandran Ashwin, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Arshdeep Singh, 11 Mohammed Shami.