The Indian cricketer Virat Kohli is currently the highest run scorer of the IPL 2024 and it won’t be wrong to say that he is the only RCB batter who is trying hard to make his team win matches.
As of now, Virat Kohli has scored 316 runs in 5 matches which include two fifties and a century but the sad part is that RCB has lost 4 out of 5 matches that it played and presently it is at the ninth position in the points table.
The IPL 2024 is quite important for the Indian cricketers as it will certainly play a role in the selection of the Indian squad for the T20 World Cup which is going to take place in June in West Indies and USA.
Virat Kohli has scored maximum runs in the tournament but there are few who are suggesting that King Kohli should not be included in India’s T20 squad and the selectors should give a chance to youngsters and the reason that they are giving is Kohli’s low strike rate (146.29).
The demand for Kohli’s exclusion from India’s T20 squad gained strength when he scored the joint slowest century (67 balls) against Rajasthan Royals and even after his century, RCB lost the match. The other batter who has scored a century in 67 balls in the IPL is Manish Pandey and he did that in 2009.
Recently the legendary former West Indian cricketer Brian Lara shed his opinion in this regard and he supported Virat Kohli’s inclusion in India’s T20 team by saying that strike rate depends on the batting position of the batter and if we talk about an opener, strike rate between 130-140 is absolutely fine. Brian Lara said that the middle order batter needs to bat at the strike rate of 150-160 and we have already seen in the IPL 2024 that batters coming at later stages are scoring at the strike rate of more than 200.
Brian Lara further said that an opening batter like Virat Kohli always has the chance of starting at the strike rate of 130 and finish at the strike rate of 160 or more which is ok. He further said that in his opinion, the top three batters for India will be Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill and as far as RCB is concerned, the whole team needs to make efforts and not just Virat Kohli.
Talking about Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma opening the innings, Brian Lara said that though it is not a bad idea to open with Rohit and Virat, he will prefer to have a young cricketer open the innings and play one of the seniors in the middle so that they can construct the innings. He added that having both the experienced players at the top can have negative results, for example what if they both got out early in the innings.
Brian Lara certainly makes sense and we also feel that keeping out Virat Kohli from the team is not possible for the selectors. What is your opinion in this regard? Share with us.
