India’s star batter Virat Kohli was seen struggling against the net bowlers ahead of the Men in Blue’s ICC T20 World Cup 2024 Super 8s game against Afghanistan in Barbados on June 20th. In addition to this, Kuldeep Yadav was seen sweating it out in the nets and might be included in India XI.
Virat Kohli has not been in the best of form in this T20 World Cup. He has failed to cross double digits in the three Group A matches in the tournament and has scores of 1,4 and 0.
As per a report in PTI, Kohli had an extended session in nets of about 35 minutes. The 35-year-old mostly faced throwdowns before moving on to the adjacent net where he took on Kuldeep and left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed. While the batter played the spinner well, he struggled to middle the ball against the reserve pacer of the Indian team.
Kuldeep Yadav in line to make it into the India XI for Afghanistan match
Amongst the discussions that India should bring in an extra spinner into the XI against Afghanistan, especially on the Barbados pitch, Kuldeep Yadav was seen sweating it out in the nets. He primarily bowled to India captain Rohit Sharma and opener Virat Kohli.
He then bowled to Rohit Sharma with an imaginary field set and Kuldeep beat the India opener a few times at the start of the session which was conducted under the eyes of Rahul Dravid.
If the two practice sessions and Kuldeep’s performance are any indication, India will choose an additional spinner for the match against Afghanistan, but the final decision will most likely be made on game day.
“The pitch should turn in the middle as well, maybe not as much as it is doing in the nets but will definitely turn. The spinners have proved quite useful throughout the Caribbean thus far. I don’t think India will make any changes, they would not want to compromise on their batting,” said a former international who was present at the venue told PTI.
India has been playing three seamers Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj, and Jasprit Bumrah, and two bowling all-rounders Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja.
To draft Kuldeep Yadav into the India XI, either Arshdeep Singh or Mohammed Siraj will have to be dropped from the combination.