crew India Going through a transition phase after a tremendous 2021 T20 World Cup campaign and a lot of pressure has been put Virat Kohli Who is also going through difficult times. Kohli has arguably been India’s best batsman and biggest match winner in the past decade but things have changed a lot in the last nine months.
The 33-year-old has been under constant questioning since relinquishing the T20I captaincy, which prompted the BCCI to sack him as the ODI captain as well. Things turned a little ugly when Kohli denied BCCI President Sourav Ganguly’s statements and said that he was not asked by anyone to continue as T20I captain. Earlier, Ganguly told media persons that he personally asked Kohli to think about his decision.
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Kohli also relinquished his Test captain after the South Africa tour as the balance of power in Indian cricket shifted from him to Rohit Sharma.
The Indian batting used to revolve around Kohli when he was the captain and now suddenly many cricket critics are questioning his place in India’s T20I team. The Men in Blue’s 2021 T20 World Cup was down where the Kohli-led side failed to reach the semi-finals. The former Indian captain has been criticized for his thin patches and some are asking him to drop from the T20I squad to make way for young cricketers, but is it really fair?
Recently, 1983 World Cup winning captain Kapil Dev Kohli is no longer indispensable in T20Is.
“Yes, now the situation is such that you may be forced to drop Kohli from the T20 playing XI. If the world number two bowler Ashwin can be dropped from the Test team, then the world number one batsman can also be dropped.
While former opener Wasim Jaffer also said that Kohli is not sure in India’s T20I squad.
Kohli plays, no doubt about it but his form will be taken into account. His IPL strike rate has not been good. He is not in the best form. Deepak Hooda can give you an option with bowling which will be considered but not directly. I would say Kohli will get a chance to play a few matches and then maybe the selectors will decide but I don’t think he will be sure because so many young players have done so well. In the last T20 World Cup, strike rate, that approach was questioned and I think we need to keep looking at the future,” Jaffer told ESPNcricinfo.
Looking at Kohli’s numbers since the start of 2021, it is not that bad for him to drop any player. Batting Maverick has scored 368 runs in 12 matches at an average of 61.33. Meanwhile, he didn’t even get a chance to bat in the 2 matches that were against Afghanistan And in the Namibia T20 World Cup. Whereas against Scotland he faced just 2 balls and remained unbeaten on 2. He was dropped from the ICC top 10 rankings in T20Is, but it is not solely because of his batting performance. He lost too many matches this year to manage his workload, which directly affected his place in the ICC rankings.
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The 2021 T20 WC did not go as planned for India as the over-reliance on the top 3 was once again in the limelight for their performances. Over the past few months, the selectors have given several players a chance to shine whenever senior players were rested for the series. They managed to find a few players who proved that they were ready for a place in the XI. Youngsters like Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer and Suryakumar Yadav managed to seize the opportunities they got as critics suddenly started questioning Kohli’s place in the team.
In recent times, Kohli has been heavily criticized for his strike rate, however, if you look at his performance, the 33-year-old has a set pattern of play, where he took some time to settle down and then himself was thrown at the opposition. In the last five overs. The strategy has worked well for India in the last five years. His presence at No 3 provided stability to the batting order, allowing the other players to play their natural game.
The 2021 T20 WC was the first time that people started questioning Kohli’s credentials in the T20I format despite scoring a half-century against Pakistan. In the high-octane clash, Shaheen Shah Afridi shook the Indian team by dismissing the openers early, but Kohli took the responsibility of giving his team a fighting chance when the other batsmen failed in the fight. He scored 57 runs in 49 balls but India lost the match.
He had one off-game with the bat in the tournament which was against New Zealand where he scored 9 runs. Looking at the tournament, Kohli failed to captain the tournament but Kohli showed batting spirit.
The selectors gave Kohli some rest this year as he missed a few T20I series which was not working in his favour. The 33-year-old is currently being judged on his tremendous form in IPL 2022, where he scored 341 runs in 17 matches at a strike rate of 115.99.
However, it is unfair to judge Kohli solely on the basis of his IPL performance as the selectors have also shown some irregularities while picking the team. Players like Shikhar Dhawan and Umesh Yadav, who had a good IPL season, did not get a chance in the T20 team, while youngsters like Ishan Kishan and Ruturaj Gaikwad found support despite poor performances for their teams.
In the same tournament, skipper Rohit Sharma also found it difficult to score runs but his place was not in any danger, which clearly indicated that being a captain gave him the freedom that Kohli enjoyed during his tenure as well.
However, raising questions about Kohli’s place in the T20I squad is not purely based on the IPL season being justified.
Kohli has set the bar very high for himself and is now falling prey to his own greatness. India still needs Kohli as a batsman to provide stability in the middle order which is the strength of every No. 3 batsman in the line-up. is the primary task.
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