The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 is still a few weeks away but India’s squad for the mega event remains a mystery. As the squad will head to the USA right after the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) completion, it is still unclear whether few senior players will be a part of the event or not. While Virat Kohli is currently the leading run-scorer of IPL 2024, legendary West Indies batter Brian Lara feels that skipper Rohit Sharma should have a youngster opening the innings with him.
Both Rohit and Virat Kohli are opening the innings for their respectively franchises, the latter’s strike rate has been under the scanner. Rohit has yet to score a half-century in the season but has a strike rate of 171.01. Lara backed Rohit and Kohli as India’s openers but had a contradictory statement as well.
"I think Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli going as openers to the West Indies will serve India very well. I think when you are picking your team and your batting order, you have to pick the team on the basis of what you want your players to do. It doesn't matter who fills that spot. They have a job. If you want to score 70-80 in the first 6 overs, you have got to pick players to do so, it doesn't matter the name of the players,” Lara said in an interaction with Star Sports.
Lara feels that Kohli should bat at no.3 and play the role of an anchor whereas a youngster should play more freely in the powerplay overs.
"So, for me, they are great players (Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli), I think though that you should have some youthful punch in the opening spot. One of the younger players, showing their mettle, showing what they are capable of, and have one of those experienced players shepherd the innings in the middle order right through till the end. Having that experience up front, it could have a negative effect if they get dismissed early, so I will use one yes, but use the other at No. 3,” he opined.
Rohit and Kohli will be going up against each other at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai in April 11. Both Mumbai Indians (MI) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) have struggled so far and managed to register one win each.
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