Recently, the Indian head coach Ravi Shastri revealed that the Indian skipper Virat Kohli would bat at no.4 in the special occasions during the upcoming World Cup. However, the former Indian pacer Ajit Agarkar doesn’t support this idea.
The Indian skipper Virat Kohli is one of the best batsmen in the current world cricket. In both the Test and ODI formats, the 30-year-old cricketer is the no.1-ranked batsman. While he is one of the great no.4 batsmen in Test cricket, he usually comes to bat at no.3 in the limited-overs cricket.
Since the October 2015, he hasn’t come to bat number four in the ODI format. In fact, in between this period, Virat Kohli has batted only once at lower than number three position in ODI cricket.
Ravi Shastri has opened up his different plan
However, the head coach Ravi Shastri has another special plan for Virat Kohli in the upcoming World Cup. In this January, Ravi Shastri revealed that Virat Kohli could come to bat at number four during the forthcoming World Cup if the conditions and situations demand. He claimed that if the condition and situation favour for the swing bowlers, they could try to hold their best batsman for later.
England and Wales will host the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup from 30 May to 14 July. As generally that time favours for the swing bowlers, Ravi Shastri has come with this new plan. The Indian head coach doesn’t want to repeat their top-order disaster like in the final of 2017 ICC Champions Trophy.
While Ravi Shastri doesn’t want to disturb the opening batting line-up, he claimed that either Ambati Rayudu or someone else would come to bat at no.3 in those special situations. Currently, Ambati Rayudu is performing well at the no.4 batting position.
Ajit Agarkar does not like Ravi Shastri’s idea
However, Ajit Agarkar hasn’t agreed with this fact. He feels that Virat Kohli shouldn’t change his batting order for any reason. He believes that it will be a silly thing to push Kohli down the order.
The former Indian pacer also pointed out Virat Kohli’s number of ODI centuries at no.3. The 30-year-old right-handed batsman has hit the most number of ODI centuries in this position – 32 centuries.
Ajit Agarkar also added that the top-order batting was the strength of Indian ODI team. He still believes that the middle-order batting has a few worries.
Ajit Agarkar told ESPNcricinfo, “Those numbers tell you the story – 32 hundreds at No.3. And yeah, the numbers still are good at No.4. But still, not at all. Why would you push your best batsman lower down the order when most of his career, the greatness that he has achieved at No.3 and he sets up the game or finishes off the game for India at that number. He is right in saying that I don’t mind batting at No.4, but I feel it will be a silly thing for India to push Kohli down the order. And not for batting KL Rahul at No.3. The top three are the reason why India are doing so well in one-day cricket. In middle-order, there are a few worries.”
The two-time World Cup-winning team India will begin their upcoming World Cup journey on 5 June against South Africa at Southampton.