Virat Kohli’s Batting Position In Team India Changed For T20 World Cup 2024
Ace batter Virat Kohli has been reportedly asked by BCCI selectors to open the innings with India captain Rohit Sharma in the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2024 tournament. The ICC event will be played in June in the West Indies and the USA.
India has not won any ICC trophy since the 2013 Champions Trophy win and in fact, lost two ICC finals to Australia in 2023. They first lost the World Test Championship final and then the World Cup final, both to Australia in 2023.
As of now, only Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Jasprit Bumrah are certainties in the Indian squad as per reports, while the other spots are still up for grabs.
Virat Kohli seeks clarity over role in Indian team for T20 World Cup, asked to open the innings with Rohit Sharma
Head coach Rahul Dravid, chief of selection committee Ajit Agarkar, and India captain Rohit Sharma had a meeting at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai last week. As per a report by Dainik Jagran’s Abhishek Tripathi, Virat Kohli wanted clarity from the selection committee about his place in the T20 World Cup.
And the committee proposed that he should open the innings with Rohit Sharma. Kohli has been opening regularly for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the last few seasons of IPL. He is currently the Orange Cap holder with 361 runs in seven matches at a strike rate of 147. He already has hit a century in the ongoing IPL 17 as well.
He has a pretty good record as an opener in T20Is, in 9 matches, the former India captain has scored 400 runs at an average of 57, which is higher than his career T20I average of 51. His strike rate jumps from 138 to 161 when he opens the batting in this format. Even his only T20I century, against Afghanistan came when he opened the innings for India.
The only time Rohit and Kohli opened the innings for India, they added 94 runs in 9 overs against England, with India going on to make 224. Kohli top-scored for India with 80 off 52 balls while Rohit smashed a whirlwind 64 off 34 balls.
