Indian batting champion Virat Kohli no longer appears to be the first choice in India’s T20I XI. After the conclusion of the 2023 ODI World Cup, the Men in Blue suffered a heartbreaking defeat despite dominating the entire showpiece event on home soil, but the focus quickly shifted from his ODIs to his T20Is. I did.
Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli will not be included in India’s T20 schedule after the 2022 T20 World Cup as the team management prioritized younger players in the shorter format of matches. The Indian veteran has not played in this format since last year’s T20 World Cup. In the absence of a regular Indian captain, Hardik Pandya captained the team in this format.
According to reports, top BCCI officials held a five-hour meeting with captain Rohit Sharma and leading coach in New Delhi to discuss the upcoming giants to be held in West Indies and US. He said he has drawn up plans for the event. A selection committee led by Rahul Dravid and Ajit Agarkar participated.
Furthermore, India has only six T20Is left before finalizing their squad for the T20 World Cup. Three of his games are in South Africa and the other three are at home against Afghanistan.
According to a BCCI official who was present at the meeting, the selection committee and board are looking for players who can play attacking cricket from the start. Currently, Ishan Kishan appears to be the frontrunner for the third position. In the home series against Australia, the left-hander struggled for position but still played solid knocks against Australia in his five matches of the T20 series.
Yashasvi Jaiswal or Shubman Gill will likely lead the batting line-up along with Rohit Sharma, while the other will act as a stand-in opener. With Kishan at his number three, Suryakumar Yadav, Rinku Singh, Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja will occupy the remaining spots in the batting order.
This means that Kohli, who is widely regarded as India’s best white-ball player of the past two decades, will not be selected to represent India for the tournament.
Team India has witnessed the growth of many young players this year. It will be interesting to see how team management utilizes experienced players in the main event.
Virat Kohli had an outstanding performance at the World Cup, scoring 765 runs in 11 innings, including three centuries, and was named the tournament’s Player of the Year. However, he has been playing non-stop cricket for the last three months and is set to return for his two-match Test series against South Africa.
