The Indian cricket team which will face South Africa in the 5-match T20I series starting today is relatively a less experienced team because the senior cricketers of the team – Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah have been rested by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Earlier the team was supposed to be led by KL Rahul but because of his injury, Rishabh Pant has been named as the new captain just one day before the match.
Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul are the three top-order batsmen of India and all three of them have been under scanner because of their slow strike rate. If we analyze their performances in the IPL 2022, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli had a poor IPL, the former was slammed not just for his batting performances but for his captaincy as well and the latter may have scored two half-centuries in the tournament but he failed to play a big innings in the crucial knock-out match.
While Rohit Sharma wasn’t able to score a single half-century in the tournament, he scored 268 runs at the strike rate of 120.17. He was also criticized for being very unstable regarding his bowling unit as well as for not making Tim David play in more matches. On the other hand, former RCB skipper Virat Kohli got out for golden duck three times in the tournament, he scored 341 runs with the strike rate of 115.99. Though Virat Kohli played a brilliant knock in the last league match against Gujarat Titans and kept the chances of his team entering the play-offs alive, he was trolled mercilessly for failing in the play-off match.
If we talk about KL Rahul, his campaign in the IPL 2022 can be called a successful one as he led Lucknow Super Giants in the play-offs in its debut season and also performed well with the bat but he was under fire for his slow strike rate, especially in the knock-out match.
It is a general opinion that India misses an explosive hard-hitter in the top-order who can make the most of the powerplay because the top three of team India take their time in settling down.
Now the Indian head coach Rahul Dravid has opened up on this matter and he has made it clear that there are no plans of making changes in the top three for the T20 World Cup; however he states that these three are quality players and their roles will be clearly defined to them. According to him, it is quite obvious that in a high-scoring game, the players will be expected to maintain their strike rate and they will also need to face the challenges posed by the pitch, if there are any.
Rahul Dravid who was speaking in a virtual press-conference said that there would be no change in the top three but in this series, they would be looking at the different top three and hopefully they would give a positive good start and also play as per the situation.
Will these three be able to make changes in their game as per situation? What do you think? Let us know your views.