Virat Kohli’s form with the bat in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024 is a concern for the Indian team. India will play Afghanistan in their first encounter of the Super 8s stage on June 20, 2024, in Barbados.
Kohli, who came into the T20 World Cup on the back of 741 runs in IPL 2024 as an opener for Royal Challengers Bengaluru and winning the Orange Cap, has failed to show the same flair at the top for India. He has scored 1,4 and 0 in the three matches of Group A in the USA.
With Kohli under fire for his mini-dry run at the ICC event, experienced Indian all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin called on former India batter Robin Uthappa to preview the batting icon’s next assignment. India, led by Kohli, will face Afghanistan in the T20 World Cup’s opening Super 8 encounter.
Ahead of the Afghanistan game, there are speculations that India might tweak the batting lineup with Rishabh Pant or Yashasvi Jaiswal opening the innings with Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli going back to his preferred no.3 spot.
“There is no chance for a player like Virat Kohli to damage his confidence. He will say, ‘you brought me down to number 3, I will show you who I am.’. That’s how he will bat, first of all. I am saying this because I know him,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
The batting icon notched up his first-ever golden duck at the T20 World Cup in his last outing.
Just a blip in the radar: Robin Uthappa on Virat Kohli’s struggles with the bat
Virat Kohli also trailed Babar Azam of Pakistan, who became the T20 World Cup’s all-time leading run-scorer. The former India captain needs 104 runs to retake the top spot on the T20I list of leading run scorers.
“Virat Kohli’s physiology, after the previous match, I saw a glimpse of it. Maybe five seconds. Him interacting with some of the players and talking to the support staff. When you see his physiology, you can tell that man is exuding supreme confidence. And that comes from a place of knowing about his own game and the confidence in his own ability. So, he knows that this is just a blip in the radar,” Uthappa said.
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