Can Virat Kohli call it quits on Twenty20 Internationals? This is what the numbers indicate.
Can Virat Kohli call it quits on Twenty20 Internationals? This is what the numbers indicate. Who will call it first? Will it be Virat Kohli or the BCCI? Kohli, the T20 batter, plays by memory. Still, it’s clear that his strategies aren’t working well enough for him in this short-duration, high-impact game. It also doesn’t let the Indian team make the most of what they have. There will be 20s or 35s, but not at a strike rate of 150 (it was 102 plus against Pakistan on Sunday). So, can Kohli be kicked off the team for the T20 World Cup? Even if he isn’t scoring runs at a speedy rate, you could never think that. But after the T20 World Cup in Australia, can Kohli keep playing this way for India? Well, even if the people who make decisions know the answer, they won’t tell you what it is.
Questions on Kolhi’s role
This question has been asked a lot in Indian cricket since the last year when India was kicked out of the T20 World Cup too soon. That was Kohli’s last T20 tournament as captain of India. He gave up captaincy of one format because he thought it would make his job easier and free him from having to lead the team in all formats. Even though Kohli doesn’t have any regrets about the move a year later, it didn’t work out the way he thought it would. He was removed from ODI leadership, and the smart man saw the signs and gave up his “virtual armband” in a format where his numbers were amazing.
Kohli opening up on mental health
In a refreshingly honest interview with Star Sports, Kohli talked about his recent struggles with mental health. However, it’s not impossible that he’s just burned out. 464 international games by the time he was 33 is a lot. Add to that 15 high-pressure seasons in the Indian Premier League, where he was not only the leading batsman for his team but also its most prominent brand. He only has so much bandwidth, and all he said was that there was a time when he wasn’t having fun with the game.
In 2022, he has scores of 17, 52, 1, 11, and 35 in five T20Is. If we ignore his low scores, he got 17 runs off 13 balls, 52 runs off 41 balls, and 35 runs off 34 balls. What India needs isn’t half-centuries in every game, but maybe 35 runs off 20–22 balls, or even 20 runs off 10 balls, which has a big impact even if it’s not a lot of runs.
Alarming strike rates
Between overs 6 and 14, when slow bowlers are in play, he can’t even keep a strike rate of 100. This is a cold, hard fact based on statistics. The proverbial discussion is the debate about Kohli’s status as a No. 3 batsman in Twenty20 cricket. Still, it is thought that BCCI may not address the issue until the end of the T20 World Cup.
The easiest thing for Kohli to do might be to stop playing T20s for good and focus on the 50-over format, where India has a World Cup at home and 38 Tests planned for the next FTP cycle. But if Kohli doesn’t do anything, Chetan Sharma and his team of national selectors (if they get the likely extension at the AGM) may have to make a plan with head coach Rahul Dravid and NCA head VVS Laxman to start the process of phasing out Kohli.
Can Kohli do it?
It happened to Sachin Tendulkar (in ODIs), Sourav Ganguly (in all formats), Rahul Dravid (in the white ball before his last hurrah in 2011), Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, and Virender Sehwag. So there’s no reason why Kohli can’t do it. But BCCI leaders or selectors might talk to him honestly about his future in shorter formats before or after the T20 World Cup.