Tom Moody and S Sreesanth in a discussion on India’s T20 World Cup squad© X (Twitter)
As the Indian cricket team captain Rohit Sharma and Board of Control for Cricket in India selection committee chief, Ajit Agarkar, arrived at the board’s headquarters for the T20 World Cup press conference, chatter over the rights and wrongs of India’s squad intensified. The non-selection of top players like Rinku Singh and Shubman Gill was among the hot topics, so was the debate around Virat Kohli‘s strike-rate in the shortest format. In the pre-press conference show, former Australia cricketer Tom Moody and ex-India pacer S Sreesanth also opined their views on various subjects.
One of the points of discussion was of course Kohli’s role in the T20 World Cup, with Sreesanth suggesting that the Royal Challengers Bengaluru batter can play at the No. 3 spot and perform the role of an anchor.
“He’s looking to go there and enjoy. Virat should bat at No.3 because he can walk in any time and play the anchor role,” he said on Star Sports.
Moody, however, quickly jumped in and corrected Sreesanth’s statement, suggesting there’s no ‘anchor’ in T20 cricket.
“The term is wrong. There is no such thing as an anchor in T20s. He (Virat) needs to dictate the terms. He’s got many gears. He needs to work through those. He’s smart enough and experienced enough to adjust to 11 an over or 9 an over required rate,” Moody asserted.
In the IPL 2024, Kohli plays the role of an opening batter for RCB, batting alongside skipper Faf du Plessis. However, the veteran batter is unlikely to get the same role in the Indian team for the showpiece event which begins next month.
Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal have emerged as the top picks for the opening spot, also giving the Indian team a left-hand, right-hand combination. However, with no 3rd opener in the ranks, the likelihood of Virat opening in the latter phases of the game can’t be ruled out.
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