Virat Kohli Opens Up The Reason Of India’s Lower T20I Ranking
Dec 6, 2019 at 2:26 PM
The Indian national cricket team are currently in very good form in all formats, especially after the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019. However, India are now in the no.5 position in the ICC T20I rankings. Ahead of the Hyderabad T20I against Windies, the Indian captain Virat Kohli has pointed out why India’s T20I ranking is lower.
At present, the Indian national cricket team is one of the strongest sides in every international cricket format. Since October 2016, India are holding the no.1 position in ICC Test rankings. The no.2-ranked Indian ODI team are fighting for a long time against the no.1-ranked ODI team England for the top ODI ranking position. But India are currently in the fifth position in the ICC T20I rankings. Though the Indian team is achieving success in T20I cricket, they are not consistent in this format.
This year, the Indian national cricket team has struggled in this shortest format of international cricket. While they have played 13 T20Is in 2019, India won seven matches and lost six games. Though India’s T20I chasing success rate (71.43%) is very well this year, their defending success rate (33.33%) is very weak in 2019.
We need to focus on batting first – Virat Kohli
Talking about their lower T20I rankings, Indian captain Virat Kohli has pointed out their wide experiments in this format. He has also admitted that they need to improve their first batting strategy.
Kohli said before the opening game of the three-match home T20I series against Windies, “We need to focus on batting first and defending low totals as well. Those are two things that we need to really focus on. T20 is a format where you can experiment a lot more than ODIs and Tests.”
Virat Kohli has also clarified that they have no focus on the T20I rankings as they haven’t played with the strongest T20I XI yet.
He added, “You want to give chances to the youngsters in the shortest format, we have not played the strongest eleven together in T20Is so rankings cannot be considered. We have the mindset that we will not focus on the rankings.”
The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2020 is less than a year to go. Australia will host the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2020 from 18th October to 15th November 2020. Virat Kohli now wants to build up the strongest T20I side ahead of the next T20 World Cup.
Kohli said, “Now heading into the T20 World Cup, we need to take our best team to the field, we would probably be playing our strongest eleven going into the World Cup.”
India are ready to play the three-match home T20I series against Windies, starting on 6th December. Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium (Uppal, Hyderabad) will host the opening T20I of this series.