Riding on Hardik Pandya's all-round show, India scripted an emphatic 50-run victory over England in the three-match T20I series opener on Friday (July 8). He first cracked blistering 51 and then followed it up with a brilliant spell of 4/33 to reduce England to 148. Pandya smashed six fours and a maximum en-route to his 33-ball knock before being dismissed.
Beside him, Surayakumar Yadav (39) and Deepak Hooda (33) too impressed with their instrumental knocks which laid the base of the colossal total.
Sans Kohli, Hooda, batting at no.3, perfectly made the most of the opportunity and is thriving for the national side. The flamboyant batter belted 17-ball 33 on Thursday and has got four 30-plus scored including a towering century in his last four games.
Kohli, 33, has been going through a prolonged patchy for with the willow and has not hit a century since 2019. He scored just 31 across the two innings in Edgbaston Test. As Kohli – who has played only two T20 games since the last World T20 – returns to the set-up with the second Twenty20, it remains to be seen whether India tinkers with Hooda's batting position.
Meanwhile, India's former Test specialist Wasim Jaffer feels Hooda's consistent performances will mount pressure on Kohli, who has been searching consistency for over two years now.
“Hooda’s performance will put pressure on Virat Kohli when he comes back. You’ve got a guy who has done so well, performed consistently in the IPL and the T20Is as well. The pressure might bring out the best of Virat Kohli,” said Jaffer on ESPNCricinfo.
“You’ve got to like the way they accelerated and the momentum they batted with. This was missing in the last T20 World Cup, all the time. They are going with that aggressive approach, which is very refreshing to see,” he further said.
Jaffer also wants the team to play with a similar attacking approach when other starts including Kohli and KL Rahul return to the T20 set-up. India are currently looking for the perfect team combination in the lead-up to this year's T20 World Cup in Australia.
“This is the brand of cricket they need to play if they want to dominate this format. This is something we would like to see from the main guys as well,” Jaffer added.
Besides Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja and Shreyas Iyer have also joined the T20 squad following a break after the rescheduled fifth Test. India and England will be squaring off for the second T20I on Saturday at Birmingham.
