How do you replace someone with 159 matches under his belt, the most runs in T20Is at the time of his retirement, an average of 32.05, a strike-rate of 140.89, a record five international hundreds? And who, in his last outing, led his team to the T20 World Cup crown?

How do you replace a virtuoso who, in 125 appearances, amassed 4,188 runs, the second most in T20I history, averaged 48.69 and struck at 137.04 per hundred balls faced, and whose last match brought him the Player of the Award in the aforementioned World Cup final?

How do you replace an all-round package whose 515 runs, 54 wickets and economy of 7.13 do no justice to his magnetic, influential presence and who often changed the course of a match with a spectacular catch, an electric piece of fielding?

Simple answer – you don’t. You can’t.

No team in the world, not even India, has the resources to find adequate replacements for Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja. These glittering stars are beyond compare, irreplaceable. Just as Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev were before them, as were Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble. Yet, life went on then, and it will go on now too, with or without Rohit, Kohli and Jadeja.

And therefore, instead of searching for replacements, India will be better off identifying and investing in those that can bring their own magic to the slots occupied by these three worthies.

India opened with Rohit and Kohli at the World Cup to maximise the then skipper’s propensity to lord the Powerplay and the former captain’s spectacular form in the IPL. As a pair, the two right-handers seldom fired in tandem; their highest opening salvo was 39 against Bangladesh, but that was almost incidental in the final analysis.

In their absence, the first task ahead of the new management combine of captain Suryakumar Yadav and head coach Gautam Gambhir was to identify the two men best suited for the openers’ role. That process has brought them to Shubman Gill, the new white-ball vice-captain, and Yashasvi Jaiswal, the mercurial left-hander, neither a stranger either to the international stage or the 20-over firmament.

Gill, 24, has played 19 T20Is, while Jaiswal, two years younger, has 20 appearances; both are T20I centurions already. Gill is an aesthetically appealing right-hander with all the strokes in the book and who, in the first half of 2023, took the art of six-hitting to a whole new level. Jaiswal complements the right-hander beautifully, not averse to risk-taking or hitting the ball in the air. A consummate clearer of boundary ropes, he has 34 sixes in 19 T20I hits.

Together, they have the trappings of a fantastic opening combine. In Zimbabwe earlier this month, they put on 156 while muscling their side to a ten-wicket victory in the fourth match, having warmed up with an alliance of 67 three days previously. “We really enjoy batting with each other,” Gill crooned the other day. “The kind of shots we play, we complement each other. Being a left-right combination, we have had good partnerships previously. We have great understanding and communication; I have fun batting with him.”

Jaiswal shares similar sentiments, and the sight of the two 20-somethings taking down opposition attacks with beautiful brutality isn’t likely to be an uncommon one going forward. So, after Rohit-Kohli, who? Best bet: Gill-Jaiswal.

The answer to the Jadeja question is less straightforward simply because there is no fielder within sight who can give the Saurashtrian a run for his money. Axar Patel might have been an obvious choice had he not made himself an integral part of the XI alongside Jadeja at the World Cup. The closest India have in terms of an all-rounder in the Jadeja mould minus the fielding incandescence is Washington Sundar.

Like Gill, Washington is 24 but has only played sporadically since debuting as an 18-year-old in 2017. Originally a top-order left-handed batter, his calling with the national team in all three formats is as an off-spinner who can weigh in with handy runs lower down the order. Washington initially didn’t seem to trust his off-spin as much as the decision-makers, but now that he has also started to look at himself as a bowler who can bat, the results have begun to flow. In Zimbabwe, he was the Player of the Series for his eight wickets in five matches, a start he will attempt to build on in Sri Lanka over the next few days.

No replacements then for the terrific threesome, but enough promising options to fill the breach. Suryakumar and Gambhir can’t really ask for more.

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