India’s batting coach, Vikram Rathour, gave a playful answer when a journalist inquired about Virat Kohli’s performance and batting spot before the crucial Super 8 T20 World Cup game against Bangladesh. Kohli has been a hot topic in the 2024 T20 World Cup, but unfortunately, it’s not for his usual stellar performances. The star batsman, who was the top scorer in the 2022 edition, is currently struggling with his batting. In this year’s competition, which took place in the USA and West Indies, Kohli has only scored 29 runs in four innings, including three times where he scored less than 10 runs as the opening batsman.
Kohli had a tough time on the difficult New York pitches, scoring only 1, 4, and 0. People thought he might play better in the Caribbean, but that didn’t happen. In a game against Afghanistan, he scored 24 runs, which was slow and not very good. Even though he didn’t play well overall, there were moments when he looked like his old self. On Thursday, he hit a big six off a ball from Naveen ul-Haq, which reminded people of a famous six he hit against Pakistan in a T20 World Cup match last year.
A reporter asked Rathour, the coach for the Indian team’s batting, if they should think about putting Kohli back in the number 3 spot. Rathour smiled and said, “Don’t you like that he’s opening now? I thought everyone wanted him to open.”
When the reporter kept asking about it, Rathour explained, “We’re not considering that. We’re happy with our current batting order. If we make any changes, it will be based on the other team and the conditions we face.”
Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have only opened the batting together once before the T20 World Cup in 2024. They were put at the start of the batting order to make room for strong hitters in the middle, but this plan hasn’t worked out as hoped. Rohit has scored only 76 runs in four games, averaging 19.00 with a strike rate of 111.76, while Kohli has done even worse, getting just 29 runs with an average of 7.25 and a strike rate less than 88.
Since they play important roles in India’s batting lineup, it’s very important for them to start playing well again for India to have a chance at winning the T20 World Cup. Even though other batters have played well during the tournament, it’s now very important for these top players to get back into their groove.
India won their first Super 8 match against Afghanistan thanks to Suryakumar Yadav’s fast 53 runs and Jasprit Bumrah’s great performance. India’s next game is against Bangladesh in Antigua on Saturday, June 22.
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