Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are the preferred opening pair for India’s T20 World Cup 2024 tournament for India’s legendary batter Sunil Gavaskar.
Team India will begin their T20 World Cup campaign on June 5 against Ireland in a Group A encounter at New York’s Nassau County Cricket Stadium. India enjoyed a superb warm-up game against Bangladesh, winning comprehensively by 60 runs.
Kohli has been India’s official No. 3 batsman in white-ball cricket. However, the 35-year-old drastically improved his game, displaying his greatest form in the game’s shortest format while opening. Meanwhile, in the warm-up game against Bangladesh, Sanju Samson opened with Rohit before departing after scoring one run.
Virat Kohli deserves to be opening the batting: Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Gavaskar named his openers for the marquee tournament and chose the star Indian duo of Kohli and Rohit. He went on to keep Yashasvi Jaiswal at the No.3 position, followed by Suryakumar Yadav. He added that with his brilliant form in IPL 2024, Kohli deserves to open the batting.
“Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli as openers. The way Kohli has batted, particularly in the second half of the IPL, he deserves to open the batting with Rohit Sharma, the captain. Seriously, good players are good players. They can bat anywhere, you know whether they’re right or left hand.
“So no, I don’t think. It’s very good to talk on television about left hand-right hand combination, good players are good players. In Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, you have got 2 terrific and 2 fantastic batters. The kind of form Kohli has shown in the IPL, he has to open the batting,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports.
Kohli had a sensational run in IPL 2024 as he won the Orange Cap for scoring 741 runs in 15 matches at a strike rate of over 154 with 5 fifties and a hundred.
“As he is in that flow, he is in that rhythm. You don’t want Kohli to wait, even if it is for an over, or even 5 deliveries before he comes out to bat. It is a different feeling when you are walking out with someone to bat. There is a little bit of exchange that they will say let us get going, etc. Walking out alone is different than walking out with a partner,” Gavaskar said.
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