Should Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma play the T20 World Cup in June 2024? Should two of India’s greatest have one more crack at a world title? This debate started the moment the World Cup final was over. With the title eluding India, it is more pertinent than ever. Both these legends played a stellar hand in India’s campaign, and the way they both performed makes this discussion all the more relevant.
While some reports have suggested that neither Rohit nor Kohli will feature in T20s for India, it is important to question such reports, for logic suggests otherwise.
Virat Kohli
Kohli is still one of the fittest players around and can make the team in any format of the game. Having scored 750 runs in the World Cup at an average of 95, he is clearly back to his best. To not see him at the T20 World Cup, in this form and fitness, would actually be a surprise. Again, if he needs to opt out, he could very well give bilateral 50-over contests a miss. Such contests, especially in the next two years, will have little relevance with the next World Cup only in 2027. Kohli, there is reason to believe, would want to play the Olympics in 2028, fitness permitting, and in such a scenario, he’d want to continue playing the format in the foreseeable future.
From an Indian standpoint, the team needs Kohli. He is a livewire on the field and is still one of the best batters in the world, if not the best. So why would he want to give up on a format which has a World Cup in six months’ time? And why would the BCCI not want its best-known face to be a part of the team? Finally, it’s almost impossible to imagine a North American World Cup without Kohli. He is cricket’s biggest brand, and the ICC would be desperate to have him in the mix to market the event. When you move to newer markets, you need your best and biggest brands and Kohli, needless to say, is cricket’s best-known poster boy. In fact, I for one would be surprised if Kohli didn’t feature in the Indian team in the T20 World Cup. Whether or not he opens could be decided later, but to not have him in the team would be a blow for India.
Rohit Sharma
The Hitman played a brand of cricket in the World Cup that we hadn’t seen from him before. With a strike-rate of 126, it was impact of a kind rarely seen in Indian white-ball cricket. In fact, it was the kind of batting India lacked in the T20 World Cup in Australia in October 2022. Had Rohit played this brand of cricket in Australia, things could have been different. With the next T20 World Cup just half a year away, there is no reason to believe that Rohit wouldn’t want to play a similar role for India at the top of the order. Also, with the World Cup coming on the back of the IPL, he’d be fresh from doing duty for the Mumbai Indians.
The T20 World Cup would give him one more opportunity to have a crack at the title, which has continued to elude him. More importantly, it will be essential for the BCCI and the ICC to have Rohit and Kohli in the mix for a tournament in the US. Without these two names, the competition would lose a lot of its sheen. Brand Rohit is as important to the ICC, and chances are the BCCI would want Rohit to play if he is in form. From Rohit’s standpoint, it makes sense to take a break from the 50-over game if he wants to. He will not be around for the 2027 World Cup and, if anything, the physical rigours of the 50-over game are far more than in T20s.
In short, two of India’s all-time greats should certainly be part of the T20 World Cup in the US and the Caribbean. It is not about age, and never was. It is about quality and form, and few would want to argue against the two of them after what we saw them do in the World Cup on home soil.
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Should Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma play the T20 World Cup in June 2024? Should two of India’s greatest have one more crack at a world title? This debate started…
The post Hard to see a T20 World Cup in North America without Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli appeared first on RevSportz | Latest Sports News.
