"He will come back scoring hundreds in the next three matches"- Shivam Dube on Virat Kohli's form in T20 World Cup 2024
Indian all-rounder Shivam Dube is not worried at all about Virat Kohli's form, despite the latter's slow start to the T20 World Cup 2024. Kohli was dismissed for a golden duck against the USA as he was caught behind on a delivery from left-arm pacer Saurabh Netravalkar.
Kohli came into the T20 World Cup on the back of a sensational IPL 2024 season, where he scored 741 runs in 15 innings and won the Orange Cap. However, with scores of 1,4 & 0 in his three innings so far, there has been a growing concern about his form in the tournament.
Speaking to PTI, Shivam Dube discarded any concerns about Kohli's form and claimed that a big score was not too far away. Here's what the all-rounder said:
"There is nothing I can say about Virat Kohli because I'm not Virat Kohli. His bad patch means he got out cheaply a couple of times but will come back scoring hundreds in the next three matches. We all know his game and how he plays."
Team India's belief in Virat Kohli coming back to form soon is reflected by the star batter's incredible record in this tournament. In 28 innings, he has scored 1,146 runs at a strike rate of 130.52 with an outstanding average of 67.41 and 14 half-centuries to his name. He also won back-to-back Player of the Tournament awards in the 2014 and 2016 editions of the T20 World Cup.
Ambati Rayudu recently rejected idea of demoting Virat Kohli to No.3
Another debate that has sparked up after Kohli's string of low scores is whether India should get their star batter back to No.3 and potentially open with Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal. However, former Indian cricketer Ambati Rayudu was against this idea and wanted the Men in Blue to stick to their plan.
Here's what he recently said on Star Sports:
"I don't think there's any need to change the combination right now. We saw a great cover drive and even on the ball that he (Kohli) got dismissed (against Pakistan), he had played a fine shot and just couldn't get the elevation to clear the fielder. The intent he showed was great and if both Virat and Rohit can bat with this intent, then the big days will come when either one of them or both will win India the game one-sided."
India could also look at it as a positive that they breezed through the group stage without any big contribution from Virat Kohli and this could be a sign of the star batter once again standing tall at the business end of the tournament.