Bengaluru, April 8: Legendary Brian Lara asserted that Virat Kohli’s value transcends cold numbers, and the West Indian virtuoso has little doubt that the star batter should be a part of India’s T20 World Cup squad.
Kohli stood in the eye of a social media storm after making a 67-ball hundred for Royal Challengers Bengaluru against Rajasthan Royals in their IPL 2024 match at Jaipur, which was the joint slowest hundred in the competition alongside Manish Pandey’s century in 2009.
“The strike-rate depends on position, and for an opener strike-rate of 130-140 is pretty alright. But if you are coming in the middle-order then you may be required to hit at 150 or 160. As you have seen in this IPL, batsmen are hitting at 200 in the latter part of an innings.
“But an opener like Kohli always has the chance of starting at 130, bat through the overs and finish at 160 or even higher, which is alright,” Lara said on Monday.
“But if you ask me, India’s top three in the World Cup should be Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill irrespective of all these,” said Lara.
The Trinidadian said opening the innings with Kohli and Rohit in the T20 World Cup could be a tempting option, but strongly advocated India pairing a younger name with the experienced player at the pole position.
“I think Rohit and Virat going as openers to the West Indies (for WC) will serve India very well. Though, I think that you should have some youthful punch in the opening. One of the younger players, showing their mettle, and having one of those experienced players shepherd the innings in the middle-order.
“Having that whole experience up front, it could have a negative effect if they get dismissed early, so I will use one at top, but use the other at No. 3,” said the left-hander.
That brought up the topic of Yashasvi Jaiswal’s lean patch for the Rajasthan outfit. Lara felt that the young star might be a bit anxious because of the impending team selection for the T20 World Cup. (PTI)
