Matthew Hayden Gives His View On Virat Kohli’s Decision To Change His Batting Order In Limited-Overs Cricket

Jan 14, 2020 at 7:13 PM

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Matthew Hayden Gives His View On Virat Kohli’s Decision To Change His Batting Order In Limited-Overs Cricket

As all the top-order batsmen are in very good form, Indian captain Virat Kohli decided to change his batting order for the ongoing Mumbai ODI against Australia. However, the former Australian opening batsman Matthew Hayden doesn’t agree with this change.

On Tuesday (14th January), the two top teams, India and Australia, are playing the first game of the three-match ODI series at Wankhede Stadium (Mumbai). It is also their first ODI in this new year. However, the Indian team management had a big headache ahead of this match, and that was to select the openers and sort out the top-order batting line-up.

All the three limited-overs openers Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul, are currently in the great form with the bat. Indian captain Virat Kohli has no desire to drop any of them from the present limited-overs sides. As Kohli included all of them in the squad for the ODI series-opener at Mumbai, he came to bat at no.4 rather than his natural batting position at no.3. While Rohit and Dhawan opened that innings, KL Rahul came to bat in the third position.

After winning the toss, Australia decided to bowl first in this ODI. While Rohit scored only ten runs, Dhawan and Rahul had an impressive second-wicket partnership of 121 runs. As Rahul scored 47 runs, Dhawan played the knock of 74 runs.

Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul (Image Credit: Twitter)

Virat Kohli should just be batting No.3 – Matthew Hayden

On the other hand, coming to bat at the no.4 position, Indian captain Virat Kohli scored only 16 runs before the leg-spinner Adam Zampa dismissed him through the caught and bowled.

Virat Kohli, Matthew Hayden,
Matthew Hayden (Photo Credit: Getty Images)

According to Fox Sports, Matthew Hayden said in the commentary, “You’ve got someone like Virat Kohli that has played 230-odd one-day matches and 180 of those have been at No.3 and he has scored almost 10,000 runs at that particular position. Why is there even any debate about it? He should just be batting No.3.

Hayden further added, “Make the tough call, someone is going to miss out, form will prevail, injury will prevail and someone (else) will get their opportunity.”

Virat Kohli has strong ODI records in both the no.3 and no.4 batting positions, but he generally bats at no.3 position at present. At the no.3 position, he has scored 9,509 ODI runs in 180 ODI innings (average 63.39), including 36 centuries and 45 half-centuries. Meanwhile, at the no.4 batting position, Kohli has scored 1,767 ODI runs in 39 ODI innings (average 55.21), including seven centuries and eight half-centuries.

Virat Kohli, Matthew Hayden
Virat Kohli (Image Credits: Twitter)

But after 2014, Kohli hasn’t crossed the 20-run mark in ODIs when he has come to bat at the no.4 position, which he has done seven times, including the latest Mumbai ODI.

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