Are India being too rigid with Virat Kohli the opener?

India have a Virat Kohli-sized problem at the T20 World Cup heading into their ICC Men’s T20 World Cup semi-final against England on Thursday. 

India’s biggest cricketer and leading run-getter in their T20I existence has a batting average of 11 after six innings and has made it past the Powerplay just twice with a highest score of 37 to go with two ducks. When asked by this writer back on June 8 in New York about the Indian cricket team’s decision to have a fixed top three, Rohit Sharma replied that the openers (himself and Kohli) would not be dropped and that the rest of the batting order would need to flexible. 

That rigidity continues to hurt India, because Kohli’s struggles and strike-rate issues are not just doing damage during the most critical Powerplay overs, regardless of conditions, but setting the team back on a consistent basis. Kohli has been fitted into a different role at T20I level based on his IPL form this year and is failing at it badly. 

In three innings on a tricky surface on Long Island, Kohli made five runs. Each time he was dismissed flashing outside off stump. Against Ireland, slashing a catch to deep third man. Against Pakistan, a forced push to the fielder at point. Against USA, a golden duck when he drove at ball going across him.

To his credit, Kohli did not fall back into a comfortable space during those three matches in New York when it was the easiest option. He walked the talk and kept playing hard, even though it resulted in scores of 4, 1 and 0. You wondered if judging him on those tough surfaces was entirely fair, but to see Kohli struggle in the West Indies underlines how India’s decision has backfired.

In Barbados, as India began their Super Eight campaign, he made a run-a-ball 24 and was taken inside the boundary at long-off when trying to hit Rashid Khan for a six. Two days later, Kohli was out for 37 off 28 balls against Bangladesh. On Monday, he was out for his second 0 of the tournament when trying to pull Josh Hazlewood for six, to make it 66 runs so far at this World Cup, striking at 100. This is not how it was supposed to go down, given that it looks like being Kohli’s last T20 World Cup. 

Ostensibly, it was Kohli’s solid form opening the innings for Royal Challengers Bengaluru in IPL 2024 that prompted the Indian team management to use him in role where, before this World Cup, he had only batted nine times before in T20Is. More intent, a much-improved strike-rate, slog-sweeps to the spinners and the most sixes he’d ever hit in an IPL season pitchforked Kohli as a very attractive opening option for the BCCI selectors for this World Cup, and so he was locked for the role and allowed room to attack and fail. 

Can we expect Kohli to bat the way he does in the IPL at a T20 World Cup? No, because here he cannot hit at a strike-rate of 200. That is not how he operates when opening for India, and it has been impossible to do so in New York and the West Indies. 

What the move to open with Kohli did was one, displace him from the No 3 which he has owned for almost all his India career and from where he won two Player-of-the-Tournament awards in T20 World Cups (2016 and 2022). And two, deny Yashasvi Jaiswal a chance to open alongside a stagnating Rohit. 

The idea was probably to capitalize on Kohli’s IPL 2024 form and make room for flexibility thereon, with Rishabh Pant batting at one-down so far in this World Cup. But Kohli’s failures and the struggles of Rohit have meant that Pant has been in early in every game so far. Pant did very well to top the averages and strike-rates during the New York leg of the World Cup, and now in the West Indies he has made scores of 20 off 11 balls, 36 off 24 and 15 off 14. 

Some will argue that there is logic to persisting with Kohli as opener despite his struggles, in that now shifting him back to No 3 would mean also pushing Pant and Suryakumar Yadav down a spot too. But when India’s most successful T20I batsman is repeatedly struggling to cash in, and there is a tournament to be won, can India afford to keep hoping? 

They are unbeaten at the T20 World Cup, but for a team with genuine designs on lifting the trophy that has eluded them since 2007 – that is 17 years, for the count – India’s biggest worry starts at the top.