Virat Kohli's '500-plus' runs guaranteed, World Cup squad '95 percent' final, but question marks over Rohit Sharma
Former India wicketkeeper Deep Dasgupta expects Virat Kohli to have a smashing IPL 2024 but will be interesting to see Rohit Sharma's form.
Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma's comeback into India's T20I scheme of things after a gap of 14 months has led to more questions than answers. Why did the BCCI go back to them? Do we need two players in their mid-30s in a team that demands young blood? What happens to youngsters who were slowly cementing their place in the T20I XI such as Tilak Varma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh? And most importantly… does the management not trust their promising bunch of youngsters enough that it has to go back to two of their most veteran batters?
These questions sound all the more legitimate when you put into consideration that Rohit and Kohli have just three T20Is followed by a minimum of 16 IPL matches to ready themselves for a shot at World Cup redemption. But Kohli, a 2011 World Cup winner… and Rohit, a 2007 T20 World Cup winner, will approach the T20 World Cup in West Indies and the USA, with different approaches, believes Deep Dasgupta. The former India wicket-keeper is confident about Kohli having a rocking IPL season with Royal Challengers Bangalore, he is not too sure about the kind of form Rohit will be in heading to the ICC event. The one thing he is certain about is Rohit resuming his captaincy duties for the World Cup, despite Hardik Pandya holding command over the last year and more.
"It's going to be important, but for someone like Virat and Rohit you can't decide their future based on the IPL to a certain extent, and I am sure that Virat will score 500+ runs. He scores 500-600 runs, even if the season is too bad. It will be interesting to see Rohit this season because he is not leading Mumbai Indians, so it will be a different kind of role for Rohit," Dasgupta told Star Sports.
"I feel that in spite of all the discussions, the squad for WC is 90-95 percent final and the playing 11 is 99 percent final, because I don't think that both will score runs in the IPL. Another important thing is captaincy because this format is captaincy-based. It's almost fixed that Rohit will be leading as the captain in the World Cup because he is leading, which is supposed to be the last schedule of the series."
The pitches in the West Indies are slightly sluggish as compared to India, certainly not quicker. India will play their league matches in the USA, with New York hosting the high-octane India vs Pakistan tie on June 9. This is why Dasgupta stresses the importance of having both Kohli and Rohit in the side. On their tour of West Indies last August, while India won the ODI and Test series, they did go down 2-3 in the T20Is, which was quite a shocking result since the defeat came against a team which did not even qualify for the last two World Cups. Hence, for India to prevent a repeat of such calamity, the ex-India keeper insists on the presence of Ro-Ko.
"Usually speaking, pitches in the West Indies are not batting friendly, I started off by saying that if we are expecting a 160-170 kind of game, so I think this is a better option because then you have the stability and experience of both these great guys. We have observed the change in the clarity and the approach after the 50 over World Cup," added Dasgupta.
