Former Indian wicket-keeper batter Parthiv Patel has put his weight behind Virat Kohli to open the innings with Rohit Sharma in the T20 World Cup. Patel feels Kohli opening the innings gives the team the right balance.
Virat Kohli had recently opened the innings for India in the final match of the Asia Cup against Afghanistan. Kohli scored a majestic knock of 122 runs off just 61 balls to return back to form.
This was Kohli’s first century after 1020 days and he is going to hold the key for India in the T20 World Cup. Kohli opened the innings for Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL 2016, scoring 973 runs, including four centuries. Furthermore, Kohli has scored 400 runs in nine innings while opening for the national team at an average of 57.14 in the game’s shortest format.
If Kohli opens the innings for India, then KL Rahul will be demoted in the batting order.
“It’s very clear. If I was clear that Virat Kohli should be opening in Asia Cup, he should be opening in World Cup as well. It just gives the right balance,” said Parthiv on Cricbuzz.
There is no doubt that Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are India’s best batters and it will make sense to bat them at the top of the order.
“They (Kohli and Rohit Sharma) are two different kind of players. One goes very aggressive (from the beginning), can hit boundaries, and there is Kohli who finds gaps and creates boundaries. If Rohit and Kohli can play till the first six overs I have no doubt that even in Australian conditions more often than not they will get India to around fifty. That is a good score without losing a wicket. Kohli is probably India’s best batter suited for those conditions. So why not. You have got your two best batters playing the first six overs. If you have wickets in hand, that has always been the recipe for success for any T20 team.”
Patel added that there were always high expectations from Kohli and even though he was getting fifties, he was considered out of form as we are used to him scoring big hundreds.
“There was no question about Kohli’s place. It was just about the form. The expectations are always high because he has set the bar so high. We always talk about his big scores and centuries. He was scoring runs, still getting fifties, but everyone is so obsessed about those centuries. There was never a question of whether he will go to the World Cup or not,” he said.
Kohli will be seen in action in the three-match T20I series against Australia, starting 20th September in Mohali.
