Team India’s Asia Cup 2022 squad was released by the BCCI on Monday, and fans must have been buzzing to see the name of Virat Kohli back among the big boys. For a while now Kohli has struggled to live up to his own lofty standards, and amid the increasing number of advice from cricketers to take a break, the former Indian skipper did exactly that.
The 33-year-old reportedly asked the selectors to not consider him for the recently concluded five-match T20I series against West Indies, nor will he feature against Zimbabwe in the ODI series later this month.
Having last scored a century back in November 2019, many believed that Zimbabwe would have been the perfect opponent to give Kohli the kind of self-belief that he is perhaps lacking, amid his ongoing slump of late.
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But he’s not made not like that, the Delhi-born batsman will return directly for the Asia Cup, which would be the 100th T20I match of his career, and that too against Pakistan.
Given the fact that Kohli has failed to score consistently for a while now, something has to change.
Should Virat Kohli change his batting position after being India’s mainstay at number 3 for so many years?
Firstly, Kohli has played as an opener, most recently for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and it hasn’t quite worked out. As an opener, he would get much more balls to play, but then he will be expected to score plenty more runs.
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So if the former Indian skipper decides to bat number 4, who will chip in at number 3? Suryakumar Yadav would be the perfect player in the T20I and ODIs at least, given his recent form. Shreyas Iyer has played at number 3 in the games wherein Kohli was rested.
Deepak Hooda is another player capable of playing at 3, and then there’s Sanju Samson as well. But what would such a change mean for Kohli?
Simply put, the veteran batsman would most likely get fewer balls to play in T20I cricket. At number 3, let’s say, Kohli comes to out to bat if an opener gets dismissed early. At number 4, he’d get fewer balls to play than he would at number 3, and given his current slump, the more balls Virat Kohli will play, the better he will be.
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While promoting some like Suryakumar Yadav would certainly be a good move, but doing so at the expense of Kohli wouldn’t be such a wise move, as he can still deliver at the top level, as evident by the fact that since the 2019 World Cup, he is the highest scoring Indian batsman across formats, despite not having scored a single century.
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