Virat Kohli, Surya Kumar Yadav, and Rohit Sharma are two of the most destructive batsmen in the world. No matter the format, if these three are in form, the oppositions can say the match goodbye.
But with the ever-changing nature of T20 cricket, the all-rounders are getting more and more important than pure bowlers and batsmen. The more depth you have in each department, the better team you are.
The Indian team severely lacks good all-rounders in their ICC T20 World Cup 2024 squad. There are only 3 all-rounders in the squad which include Ravindra Jadeja, Hardik Pandya, and Axar Patel. This has always been a problem for the Indian team and has always bite them in previous T20 World Cup. Former Indian player Irfan Pathan agrees when he talks about the possible playing XI of the Indian team.
Lack Of Options
The former Indian player stated “With the selected team, there can be two combinations. In one combination, you can play with six bowlers, including Axar Patel, to deepen the batting lineup. In the other combination, you can play with four front-line bowlers and expect Shivam Dube and Hardik Pandya to bowl.
Another option for Team India is a young player who bowls in the nets but hasn’t bowled in matches, Yashasvi Jaiswal. Shivam Dube also mentioned during the IPL that he has been regularly bowling in the nets, preparing to bowl one or two overs in the World Cup.”
‘Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma Handicaps Us’
The left-arm pacer further stated “If Hardik can give you the option of bowling three to four overs, this problem will be largely solved. Our other batsmen, like Rohit, Virat, or Suryakumar Yadav, can’t bowl, which makes us somewhat handicapped.
Ideally, if any of these players could bowl, it would greatly benefit the team. We talk about Australia, but even England has many all-rounders among their top seven players. It’s always better to have more bowling options, and yes, in this scenario, we are handicapped.”
Former Indian player Sanjay Manjrekar also agreed with the notion of Irfan Pathan. The intentions of these experts were not to demean Kohli and Rohit in any way but to show the lack of depth the Indian team has in the T20i format.
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