"20-25 runs in 15 balls is not a bad innings" - Deep Dasgupta on expectations from Virat Kohli heading into 2024 T20 World Cup Super 8s
Deep Dasgupta reckons Virat Kohli will do his job if he gives India a flying start in the 2024 T20 World Cup Super 8s. While acknowledging that a substantial knock would be great, Dasgupta noted that an impactful innings would be more crucial.
Kohli has aggregated a paltry five runs in three innings in the ongoing T20 World Cup. The modern batting great will want to give a better account of himself when the Men in Blue start their Super 8 campaign with a clash against Afghanistan in Barbados on Thursday, June 20.
While speaking on Star Sports, Dasgupta cited Rohit Sharma's example to explain that India would be looking for quickfire 20-25 runs from Kohli in the Super 8s.
"We are talking about runs, which is important, but if you are opening and especially in this format, impact is important. You might score 30 runs but if those 30 runs come in 20 balls, that is more important than you scoring 50 runs off 45 balls. So impact is very important," he said.
"These are matches and pitches where you will have to play such knocks. If you take Rohit's example, he might not have scored big runs in the last one to one-and-a-half years, but he gives the momentum in every innings. 20-25 runs in 15 balls is not a bad innings. If he scores a fifty or a hundred, that is very good, but even if he contributes with a 15-ball 25, he has done a job," the former India wicketkeeper-batter added.
Rohit has aggregated 68 runs at a strike rate of 123.63 in three innings in the 2024 T20 World Cup. Rishabh Pant, who has amassed 96 runs at a strike rate of 124.67 in three innings, is the only Indian player to have scored quicker.
"I seriously believe form is irrelevant in T20s" - Deep Dasgupta on Virat Kohli's lean run
Deep Dasgupta also noted that he isn't concerned about Virat Kohli's form.
"I seriously believe form is irrelevant in T20s. If you don't score runs in two matches, you don't become a bad player, you are not out of form, you are out of runs, which Virat Kohli is. Considering Virat's pedigree and all, I am not at all worried," he said.
The cricketer-turned-commentator added that the Indian batting mainstay will eventually figure out how to return to his run-scoring ways.
"He got out in the last match off the first ball and before that, watching the four or five balls he played, it didn't seem like he is out of form. It didn't seem like his bat was going in a different line and the ball was somewhere else, and someone like Virat, he will figure it out, there are no two views about that. So I am not at all concerned," Dasgupta stated.
Kohli has been dismissed while attempting big shots in all three games in the ongoing tournament. He might consider returning to his conventional approach of building an innings before launching an attack on the opposition in the upcoming games.