One of me or Rohit has to bat long in every game, attests Virat Kohli
Team India skipper Virat Kohli has stated that for India to win matches, it’s important for one of him or Rohit Sharma to bat through the innings.
Unlike the prototype of an Australian or an English T20 side - which revolves around dashers rather than sheet anchors propelling them to big scores - the Indian side relies heavily on batsmen batting through the innings to help them post or chase down big totals and this very approach has yielded them immense success over the course of the last 5 years.
Yet again, in the first T20I against the West Indies, chasing a mammoth total of 208, it was India’s go-to approach, that of a top-order batsman batting through the innings, which helped them get the win over the Windies, with skipper Virat Kohli’s sublime unbeaten 94 proving no match to the clueless Windies bowlers.
Post his heroics in Hyderabad, Kohli has now stressed on the importance of one of him or Rohit to carry on and bat through the innings, while also adding that his aim, even in a T20 match, is to stay true to his orthodox approach of scoring runs.
“One of us, Rohit or I, has to play long in this team. That’s the role I play in every team I play in. Basic funda (theory) is that I don’t want to change my game too much for T20Is. I’m an all-format player. I just want to score runs every game,” Kohli said in the post-match presentation, reported Times of India.
Timing over power
Kohli, who eventually ended up with 94 of 50 balls, had an extremely scratchy start to his innings, only managing to score 20 off his first 20 balls, mistiming and shanking a lot of deliveries in the process. The Indian skipper reflected on his knock and joked about how the first half of his innings was a perfect “DON’T” for the youngsters to follow and further discussed his ‘timing over power’ approach which has seen him average north of 50 in even the game’s shortest format.
“To young batsmen watching, don’t follow the first half of my innings. I was batting poorly at that time. I didn’t want to put KL (Rahul) under pressure but I couldn’t get going. Luckily got that one over from (Jason) Holder, and then I began to analyse where I was going wrong.
“I realised I’m not a slogger but a timer instead, and then changed my playing style. I’m not someone who wants to entertain by hitting in the air. The aim is not to play slam-bang cricket.”
Rohit might have missed out in the first game, but the bookmakers firmly think that he’s still one of the frontrunners to inflict pain upon the Windies in the second T20I. Bet365 have favored both Kohli and Rohit at 3.50 to be India’s top batsman in Thiruvananthapuram, a tricky choice, if there ever was one.
