One of India’s players is in fine form ahead of Saturday’s T20 World Cup final against South Africa. The other is not at all.
While Rohit Sharma scored 248 runs – including 92 off 41 balls in a cavalier innings against Australia – at an average of over 40, Virat Kohli scored just 75 at an average of under 11.
Rohit has racked up three half-centuries in seven knocks. Kohli has scored two ducks and only two double-digit scores in seven knocks.
The aggressive brand of cricket that India have adopted since a meek T20 World Cup semi-final defeat to England in Adelaide in 2022 – a result they avenged in Guyana on Thursday to reach the 2024 final – has been instigated by Rohit and he is thriving playing it.
Kohli not so much.
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Rohit was quick to praise Kohli’s “intention” after his nine runs against England – including six runs off a single delivery when he bowled Reece Topley at long-on.
Kohli may be following the team’s mantra, but is it to the detriment of his own game?
Take away that sublime six and Kohli’s innings was very nervy.
He charged down the field to Topley’s second ball and struck into the cool air. He was beaten by Jofra Archer’s fifth delivery who attempted a powerful drive outside off stump.
The ball before Kohli got out, he pushed Topley offside for two on a thick leading edge. On the next pass, he was castled with his leg lifted over the line. He trotted off. Frustrated. Angry.
This low blow followed a five-ball duck against Australia in which he perished while trying to score with a boundary and was caught by Josh Hazlewood at deep mid-wicket.
“Surely he must be batting normally? He’s world class and he’s been doing it for a very long time,” said Aerial sports“Nasser Hussain following Kohli’s savage attack on Archer.
“I couldn’t agree more,” added former India player and head coach Ravi Shastri. “Be the playmaker. Rohit is the one who will take care of that.”
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“This is not Kohli’s game, he goes too early”
A few weeks before the tournament, Kohli was the all-time leading run-scorer in men’s T20 international matches – he has since slipped to third place in that list, behind Rohit and Pakistan’s Babar Azam – with 37 fifties and a ton in progress road, against Afghanistan in September 2022.
His old style seems to be working and Shastri wants him to return to it, saying Star Sports after his sending off against England: “It’s not his game. He goes too early, especially with Rohit playing aggressively at the other end of the pitch.
“He can catch up pretty easily once he gets a little more time in camp. He’s more orthodox. When he tries to get out of his zone, he’ll come out that way.”
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This debate is familiar to fans of English Test cricket, with Joe Root’s more aggressive streak under Bazball often called into question when he falls while doing something brilliant, as he did in the Test series against the India this winter during the reverse scoop.
Should one of your most stylish players, with many runs behind him over several years, be left to fend for himself amid a radical shift in team mentality or toe the party line?
If Kohli were to adopt the ‘pacer’ role that Shastri referred to earlier, then India have the batters around him to compensate: Rohit at the top, Rishabh Pant at No. 3, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel to follow.
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Rohit has put his finger on ‘intent’ and that is the big play here: to put pressure on the opposition immediately, not to let the bowlers settle down. Rohit executed that to perfection against Australia when he took the third over, bowled by Mitchell Starc, for 29.
He could, perhaps rightly, argue that Kohli’s 37 in 28 balls against Bangladesh was also crucial in that 50-run win, with his opening partner’s early runs putting India ahead before before it is eliminated.
The intention is great, but results matter and Kohli has not lived up to it, even though his first three innings, in which he scored five runs in total, came on a terribly difficult New York pitch.
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His run-a-ball 24 against Afghanistan is the only time, apart from the match against Bangladesh, in which he has passed nine. Blob against Australia. Blob against the United States. Four against Pakistan. One against Ireland.
India may not have needed Kohli at his best to make it eight wins out of eight in this World Cup, such is their strength in depth both in batting and bowling, but they could do so when they take on another unbeaten side, South Africa, in Barbados.
“He’s probably saving himself for [that game]”, joked Rohit giving Kohli a ringing endorsem*nt after the win against England. “He is a quality player. Any player can pass [a lean patch].
“When you’ve been playing for 15 years, form is never a problem. We understand his class. We understand its importance in big matches. »
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India have undoubtedly changed for the better, but perhaps in this big game Kohli should go back to what has brought him so much success in the past. Being the pacer. Batting normally.
Hussain added: “He can be the glue around which other players fight.
“He suffered hitting on that tough New York pitch and he was in the nets trying to find his rhythm.
“If he bats for three or four overs, that timing comes back. And, at the end of the day, in a big game, under pressure, who will India want? Kohli.”
Watch the T20 World Cup Final between India and South Africa at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados live Sky Sports Cricket from 3 p.m. on Saturday (3:30 p.m. first ball).
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