India’s bowling coach, Paras Mhambrey, praised the top Indian batsmen Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma for their attacking play in the Super 8 match against Bangladesh in the T20 World Cup 2024. The pair quickly got India off to a good start, scoring 39 runs in just 22 balls for the first wicket. Rohit made 23 runs off 11 balls, hitting three fours and a six, and Kohli scored his best in the tournament so far, with 37 runs off 28 balls, including one four and three sixes.
The Indian captain quickly found his rhythm after only facing three balls in his innings, hitting two consecutive fours on the next two balls. Similarly, Kohli also hit a big six off Shakib al Hasan after just three balls in his innings.
After seeing the aggressive batting from the star players, Paras Mhambrey dismissed any concerns about their form and mentioned that Rohit is playing his usual game, which he has maintained since the ODI World Cup 2023.
“I think Virat and Rohit are both doing very well. We saw this in the IPL and the World Cup. They are playing at their best. In each match, there is a specific strategy. Sometimes one player needs to take risks while the other plays more defensively. This is what we will see in the upcoming game against Australia. Rohit is playing his usual style,” Paras Mhambrey explained during a press conference before the match.
Moving forward, Mhambrey praised Kohli for his determination and mentioned that this is the approach the team management wants everyone to adopt.
“It’s great to see Virat’s determination in this match, especially. It’s encouraging to see that kind of intent. And regarding performance, there will be games where you might score 40 or 50 runs, but the way he played with that intent was really good to see. It was very encouraging. And that’s the kind of intent we want from our batting team as well. We’ve been stressing on this throughout the last World Cup and this one too,” he further explained.
Kohli is experiencing his poorest performance ever in the T20 World Cup, with only 66 runs in five matches, averaging 13.20 and a strike rate of 108.19. The 35-year-old began poorly with just 5 runs in the first three games but has shown improvement with scores of 24 and 37 against Afghanistan and Bangladesh. As the top scorer in the tournament’s history and a two-time Player of the Tournament (2014 and 2016), he is keen to score big in the next match against Australia, aiming to eliminate them from the competition.
