Ajit Agarkar and his fellow selectors reportedly held talks with Virat Kohli about his role in the T20I team before recalling him in the Indian team for the upcoming three-match series against Afghanistan.
Virat Kohli’s T20I career looked as good as over as the selectors did not include him in the team for more than a year. He has not played a T20I for India since the conclusion of the T20 World Cup in 2022. Along with him, Rohit Sharma has also not played a T20I since the marquee event two years ago and has been recalled to the T20I side.
But while there were calls from several quarters to include Rohit in the T20I side ahead of this year’s T20 World Cup, the same cannot be said about Virat Kohli. The reason is Virat Kohli’s strike-rate. The former India skipper has faced criticism for his strike-rate in recent times.
Even in the ODI World Cup last year where he finished as the highest run-scorer, he faced the heat for his strike-rate. The right-handed batsman had a strike-rate of 90 during the tournament. On the other, Rohit maintained a strike-rate of more than 125.
Selectors held talks with Virat Kohli:
The selectors were perhaps apprehensive of including Virat Kohli in the T20I team and thus decided to hold talks with him in order to tell him about their expectations from him. Chief selector Ajit Agarkar had a meeting with the former India captain in Cape Town recently, according to Cricbuzz.
The star batsman has a stunning record in T20Is though. Although his strike-rate has been questioned in recent times, he is the all-time leading run-scorer in T20Is. He has a strike-rate of 137 and an average of 52. His record in the T20 World Cup is also stunning.
Virat Kohli was the highest run-scorer in two of the last four T20 World Cups and was the second highest run-scorer in one of the editions. In the last edition, the star batsman had scored 296 runs in 6 games at an average of almost 100.