T20 World Cup,Virat Kohli is cup of hope.
Lost shape. no luck not in favor. Virat Kohli’s last three years of life have never been rosy. The crown slipped off the King, and the peppy hitter finally ripped Sal off his back by ending his century-long drought with his T20I against Afghanistan. It was a timely return to form for Kohli heading into the World Championships. He was also supported by team administrators during some difficult times.
This well-known backstory, of course, is of no concern to the Kohli fans in Australia, who thronged India’s practice session at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday hoping for a glimpse of their star cricketer.Australian, Indian or Pakistani, there was only one question on everybody’s lips at the MCG: where is Kohli in the nets? It was just an optional practice session, of course, and Kohli had simply opted not to train. Surely, then, he must be training at some indoor facility instead? Or catching up on some fielding drills at the main ground? Or simply sitting in the team bus planning his next Insta dance move? How could he not even turn up? Tell us, what is he doing instead? In Australia, Kohli retains his fiefdom. He is still the master of all he surveys.
BCCI’s statement that India will not travel to Pakistan to play the Asia Cup and the subsequent PCB threat of pulling out of 50 over World Cup in India has only made the atmosphere more politically-charged.India wouldn’t mind going into a match as underdogs and it will be Pakistan who will have to live up to the high expectations.
Even when he is not physically present, his celebrity holds sway. He is still the team’s batting fulcrum and its best all-weather batter, which could come in handy in this World Cup, given the sheer geographic span of the Australian continent and its varied early summer conditions. In such uncharted territory, Kohli’s conventional brilliance, in contrast to modern T20’s push towards more flashy top-order batters, could be invaluable.
After an initial struggle, Kohli has held his own amid demands from the new Rohit Sharma-Rahul Dravid combine for more belligerent starts, a lack of which haunted the team in the last World Cup. Not only must the top-order now achieve stratospheric heights in the Powerplay, they should also leave some headroom for their middle-order talisman, Suryakumar Yadav, to further up the tempo.
Apart from his excellent ability to push through gaps in the field, Cori is very good at running between wickets, useful on some of the big Australian courses like the MCG. This helps in other ways too:wins almost 50% of his matches at MCG, 64% at his SCG and 59% at Adelaide. A ‘pursuit master’ who averaged 436 in his nine successful pursuits (SR 137.10) in the T20 World Cup, Kohli may have to be ‘goal his setter’ in Australia. This is an area where India has struggled recently.
What this means is that there is no breathing space for Kohli here. India will be reliant on his proven abilities to adapt fast and keep an end steady even while scoring at a brisk pace. If Kohli can pull this off over four-five crucial games, he will be India’s game changer. If not, the team better have others to pick up the slack.
