Former Australia World Cup-winning skipper Ricky Ponting believes Virat Kohli could be India’s best fit for the opening slot along side captain Rohit Sharma at the forthcoming ICC T20 World Cup, starting June 1 in the West Indies and the US.
While Kohli has primarily batted at No.3 for India in the shortest format in the past, Ponting thinks the 35-year-old will be best served opening the innings when India begin their campaign against Ireland on June 5.
“They (selectors) have still got a decision to make because (Yashasvi) Jaiswal is in that squad and one thing they haven’t got a lot in their team is left-hand batters,” Ponting said.
“So they’ve got a decision to make with Jaiswal, but I’m pretty sure that they’ll go with Kohli and Rohit Sharma (as openers).”
Kohli has been in fine form in the role of opener for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) with a tournament-best 708 runs from 14 innings, but despite that questions have been raised about his strike rate at the top of the batting order.
Ponting, the ICC Hall of Famer, says that while strike rates have taken precedence over averages in recent times, Kohli remains as relevant to India’s fortunes as before.
“The mantra I think for the teams three or four years ago, was making sure that someone at the top of the order made 80 or 100, even if it took them 60 balls, it didn’t really matter,” Ponting said.
“I think it’s sort of shifting now to be more of a strike rate based game where you can have a massive impact on a game with a 40 off 15 balls rather than getting an 80 off 55 balls sort of thing,” he added.
Despite question marks over his strike rate, Ponting said Kohli would be his first pick in India’s XI and backed the veteran right-hander to deliver on the biggest stage.
“It’s funny with Virat. I think people in India just always try to find a reason not to pick him or a reason why he’s maybe not as good as some of these other guys in the T20 game,” he said.
“He (Kohli) is the first pick for me for India.
“He can play his role at the top. And if you’ve got the right guys around him scoring (like) Suryakumar (Yadav)…Rohit Sharma’s going to have a high strike rate. These other guys can go in there and play their way.”
Kohli was the leading run-getter at the last T20 World Cup, playing crucial knocks in key games such as his unbeaten 82 against Pakistan and an even 50 against England in the semi-finals.
According to Ponting, Kohli’s quality to stand out in big matches worked in his favour.
“I remember having this chat and some other chats I did for the ICC about there’s some talk about Virat not being in their team only last year, but what happened when the big games come around, he was one of the guys who got the job done,” Ponting noted.
“So class and experience like that, you can’t replace.”
After the campaign opener against Ireland, India will take on Pakistan on June 9 before playing their final two league games against co-hosts USA (June 12) and Canada (June 15).