There is a lot of discussion about the form of former Team India captain Virat Kohli. The batsman, who has not scored a century in international cricket since the end of the year 2019, is on the target of critics. His performance in the Edgbaston Test against England was very poor. He was not selected in the ODI series against West Indies. Now there are reports that he has also sought rest from the T20 series. Earlier it was reported that his future will be decided on the basis of his performance in the two T20 and ODI series against England. He may not be selected in the T20 World Cup.
However, if we talk about the performance of this right-handed batsman in T20 cricket, he has been scoring runs since January 2021 at an average of 61.33 and strike rate of 132. Talking about the top 10 batsmen in the ICC T20 rankings, Rizwan Ahmed of Pakistan has the best average. The average of the rest is much worse than them. Babar Azam has scored runs at an average of 38.65 and has a strike rate of 128.51. Mohammad Rizwan has scored runs at an average of 71 and strike rate of 134.63. Aiden Markram has scored runs at an average of 43.84 and strike rate of 148.82. Why is there still talk of throwing them out?
Performance in IPL 2022 – Virat Kohli has not played T20 International for the last five months. He last played T20 International in February 2022. He scored a half-century in this match. After that he played in IPL 2022 and the performance was very poor. He got out for a duck thrice this season and could score just two half-centuries. After this he did not play in the T20 series against South Africa. He also did not play the T20 series against Ireland due to the Edgbaston Test against England.
Performance of other players – The young players who got the opportunity in the absence of Virat performed brilliantly. Deepak Hooda, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan batted well during this period. Hooda has performed at number three in such a way that the discussion about Virat has intensified. He batted very aggressively in the first T20 match against England. Earlier, he has also scored a century against Ireland.
Debate on batting at No. 3? – Suryakumar Yadav may have to sit out if Virat and Hooda remain in the playing 11. His performance has also been good. If Suryakumar is out, Virat may have to bat down. Apart from this, opening can also be done by dropping Ishan. It is worth noting that Ishan is the only batsman of Team India, who is in the top-10 in the ranking. Apart from this, KL Rahul is injured. Will Virat or Rahul be chosen after his return?