Ex-Indian head coach Ravi Shastri has given a major clue about the ‘Third Opener’ dilemma for India.
Ex-Indian head coach Ravi Shastri has given a major clue about the ‘Third Opener’ dilemma for India. Team India’s performance in the Asia Cup 2022 wasn’t very good. Still, Virat Kohli’s return to scoring runs was a big plus for the team. On Thursday, Kohli finally got his first century in T20I after waiting a long time. He hit an unbeaten 122 against Afghanistan for his first T20I century. It was also his 71st international century, tying him with the great Australian Ricky Ponting. The India batter is now only behind Sachin Tendulkar (100 international tons) in terms of the most centuries.
Rohit Sharma chose to rest for India’s last game of the season, so Kohli and KL Rahul opened the innings together. The two of them put up an impressive 119 runs together, and Kohli got to 50 runs in 32 balls. After Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav were quickly out of the game, the 33-year-old batter changed the pace of the innings before getting aggressive again. Finally, he reached his century with a six in the 19th over of the game.
Shastri’s Take
Kohli’s unbeaten 122-run innings also made him India’s highest scorer in a single Twenty20 International innings. Ravi Shastri, who used to be India’s head coach and worked closely with Kohli when Kohli was captain, praised the Indian batter after the innings.
“I think what today’s innings of Virat Kohli has done, is that it has thrown the spanner in the works. It is allowed now for the selectors to think, ‘do we need a third opener?” Shastri said during his commentary stint on Star Sports.
“When Virat Kohli is there, you got KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma, and Virat could well be the third opener in case there’s an injury. It allows you to have an extra fast bowler, as well as an extra batsman in the middle order. So, it does open some opportunity,” he further added.
After a long stretch of games with few runs, Kohli came back to the Indian team after being away from the sport for more than a month. The former captain of India will probably play again in the T20I series against Australia, which starts on September 20.