India captain Virat Kohli wants to "surprise the opposition" by experimenting with his middle order in the remaining T20s against Ireland and the subsequent three-match series against England. Kohli pushed himself down the order at six in the opening T20, which India won by 76 runs. Suresh Raina came to bat at three and MS Dhoni four after the openers Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma put up a 160-run stand.

"We have already announced that apart from the opening combination, we are going to do a lot of experiments in the middle order. We are going to be flexible in the next few T20s. We will look to throw in guys when the situation requires them to come in and try to surprise the opposition," said Kohli in the post-match presentation.
"It presents the opportunity for the batsmen who couldn't get the opportunity to bat. The guys who couldn't get a chance today will get an opportunity in the next match. The guys had a great time in IPL but they need to get time in the middle here too."