Guaranteed 500+ runs from Virat Kohli, a “95 percent” World Cup team, but doubts about Rohit Sharma

The return of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to the Indian T20I team after a 14-month hiatus has raised more concerns than it has answered. What made the BCCI return to them? In a club that needs young players, do we really need two guys in their mid-30s? What happens to young players like Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, and Yashasvi Jaiswal who were steadily securing their spot in the T20I XI? Most importantly, is the management so unconfident in their group of young prospects that they are forced to revert to their two most experienced batters?

When you consider that Rohit and Kohli have just three Twenty20 Internationals left before playing a minimum of 16 Indian Premier League games to prepare for a chance at World Cup redemption, these issues seem much more valid. However, according to Deep Dasgupta, Rohit, the champion of the 2007 T20 World Cup, and Kohli, the 2011 World Cup winner, would approach the West Indies and USA T20 World Cups in different ways. Although the former India wicketkeeper is optimistic that Kohli will have a wonderful IPL season with Royal Challengers Bangalore, he is unsure of Rohit’s level of form going into the ICC tournament.

He is certain that Rohit would take back the captaincy for the World Cup, even though Hardik Pandya has been in charge for the past year and more.

“It will be significant, but players like Virat and Rohit cannot completely bank their career on the IPL, and I have no doubt that Virat will score more than 500 runs. Even if the season is awful, he scores 500–600 runs. Since Rohit isn’t captaining the Mumbai Indians this season, it would be exciting to watch him in a different capacity, Dasgupta said Star Sports. “Despite all the talks, I believe that the playing 11 is 99 percent complete and the squad for the World Cup is 90–95 percent definitive, since I don’t think either will score runs in the IPL. Because this style is captaincy-based, captaincy is also a crucial component. Since Rohit is leading and this is intended to be the final schedule of the series, it is nearly a given that he would lead as captain in the World Cup.”

The pitches in the West Indies are not faster than those in India, although they are a little slower. India’s league matches will take place in the United States; on June 9, New York will host the highly anticipated encounter between India and Pakistan. Dasgupta emphasizes the significance of having both Rohit and Kohli on the team because of this. While India won the Test and ODI series during their August visit of the West Indies, they lost the T20Is 2-3, which was a surprising outcome considering the opposition was a side that did not even make it to the previous two World Cups. Therefore, the ex-India keeper is adamant that Ro-Ko be present in order to help India avoid a repetition of this kind of disaster.

“He began by stating that if we are anticipating a 160–170 sort of game, then I think this is a better option because then you have the steadiness and experience of both these great men. Generally speaking, wickets in the West Indies are not batting friendly. After the 50 over World Cup, we noticed a shift in the approach and clarity,” Dasgupta continued.

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