From the very beginning of the ongoing ODI tri-series involving India, hosts Australia and England, the issue of dropping down of star batsman Virat Kohli to No.4 in the batting order has been gaining a lot of attention. This so happens, considering the fact that the 26-year-old has batted at No.3 for a majority of his ODI career and had stupendous success doing so.
Indian captain MS Dhoni, however, has insisted that Kohli will continue batting at No.4 for the time being as this facilitates more solidity to the middle order, thereby allowing him and Suresh Raina to express themselves more freely during the latter overs of an innings. “If I am batting at 6 and I am worried before going for a big shot whether the following batsman will be able to capitlise in the last eight overs, it is not a good place to be in.” Dhoni explained in an exclusive interview to BCCI TV.
He added: “If Virat gets a partnership going, I am there, Raina is there and we can manoeuvre the strike and capitalise. It is also important to look at the XI you’re playing and decide which batsman batting where will benefit the team most. So a batsman who loves to bat at a certain position will have to sacrifice. By the start of World Cup we’ll have a better picture of who bats where.”
Commenting ahead of the must-win game against England at Perth tomorrow, Dhoni further added: “It is important to put runs on the board and defend them, and we haven’t been able to do that. We have had partnerships going but we haven’t been able to capitalize on them. Wickets in hand going into the death overs is something we like to have and it’s a part of our strategy. We’d like to do that going further.”
However for the surprise of many of the fans, Dhoni did not even mention repeated failures of opener Shikhar Dhawan. Instead he puts the onus on middle order and said “The openers are not a big concern. More than the top order, in middle order we have lost quick wickets and that hampers the team’s plans. You don’t want wickets to fall in pairs if openers don’t fire. We’ll have to see to that.”
Let us hope that India will be able to attain victory over England which will prove to be a big morale booster before the World Cup.