The T20 World Cup starts on Sunday with co-hosts USA facing Canada. India, meanwhile, will be playing a warm-up match against Bangladesh on Saturday in what will be their first taste of any kind of competition since they began training in New York. India will be led by captain Rohit Sharma, who alongwith Virat Kohli, made his first T20I appearance earlier this year since India’s defeat in the 2022 T20 World Cup semi-final.
Yashasvi Jaiswal is widely expected to be play a role in the top order for India in the tournament, either as Rohit’s opening partner or at No.3. However, former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar believes that Jaiswal will have to sit out altogether and India will open with Rohit and Kohli, a combination that is not the ideal one for him.
“Ideally, I would not have gone that way,” Manjrekar is quoted as saying by Star Sports. “I would have stuck with a slightly younger core set of players. But the selectors have committed themselves to the icons, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
“Now that they are in the squad, it is impossible to have Virat Kohli batting at number 3, because then you don’t get the full value of Virat. And Rohit Sharma, as well, has to open. So, India, in a way, have forced themselves to have only one kind of combination, two right-handers. Unfortunately, Jaiswal will have to sit out,” he said.
‘I would have gone completely with a new lot’
Manjrekar said that the Indian selectors have trusted seniority and experience, which he says is a tactic that has not worked for India in the past. “I would have gone completely with a new lot; then, you would have had a lot more flair and it would be something different. India have trusted the seniors, a move that hasn’t worked over the years. Let’s hope it works this time,” he said.
Kohli and Rohit had rather contrasting returns in the 2024 IPL. Kohli scored 741 runs in 15 matches and adopted a remarkably more aggressive style than in previous seasons. It meant that he ended up with a strike rate of 154.69, the highest he has ever managed to maintain in an IPL season and just the second time he finished a season with a strike over 145. Kohli scored five half-centuries and a century and was top scorer in the tournament as RCB pulled off a remarkable run of six consecutive wins to reach the playoffs.
Rohit, on the other hand, scored 417 runs at a strike rate of 150.00 and average of 32.08. He scored one century and a half-century. Like Kohli, this is the highest strike rate Rohit has managed to maintain in a season. MI managed to win just four matches out of 14 and finished bottom of the table.
