Former India all-rounder and head coach Ravi Shastri believes that former captain Virat Kohli wouldn’t mind batting at No. 4 for the sake of the team during ICC Cricket World Cup 2023. Shastri’s comments came while putting heads together about how India find themselves in troubled waters because of uncertainty around who would bat at the given position in the immediate future.
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No. 4, a crucial batting number in ODI cricket, has astonishingly managed to question the Indian team management and selection committee more than once in the recent years. Persistent before ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 as well, it has risen to such an extent that even captain Rohit Sharma had no option than to acknowledge it publicly earlier this month.
India, who are sincerely hoping for Shreyas Iyer to regain top form at No. 4 from the word go, have failed miserably in zeroing in on a replacement for him.
Iyer, who hasn’t played any form of cricket in the last five months, will hand the national team more questions than answers if he isn’t deemed fit for the World Cup which is scheduled to begin in about seven weeks from now. With him resuming batting in match simulation, the whole country is backing him to do well during Asia Cup 2023.
Ravi Shastri Believes Virat Kohli Would Bat In The Middle-Order For Indian Cricket Team
Speaking alongside former teammate Sandeep Patil and former wicket-keeper batter and chief selector MSK Prasad on Star Sports’ Selection Day show, Shastri finalized Sharma, Shubman Gill, Kohli and Ishan Kishan as India’s Top Four (assuming Iyer isn’t available) for both the continental and world events. That said, he pointed out how Kishan is “useless” in the middle-order and how both Sharma and Kohli can afford switching positions due to “vast experience”.
“If Virat [Kohli] has to bat at four, he will bat at four in the interest of the side. You know, there were times I thought of it. Even in the previous two World Cups, when I was coach in 2019, I thought I might have discussed that with MSK as well of him batting at four just to break that top heavy line up.”
It is worth of a mention that Shastri’s revelation around thinking of batting Kohli at No. 4 during 2019 World Cup received instant validation from Prasad. A primary reason for Shastri to think on those lines was to add a player between a formidable top-order also involving Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan.
While Shastri’s plan on paper never reached the execution stage four years ago, his fear of the team being in a predicament in case of a top-order collapse had come true in the all-important semi-final against New Zealand. What worsened India’s chances was an open-mouthed ploy to promote Dinesh Karthik at No. 4. For the unversed, Shastri had even given a similar hint around changing India’s batting order months before that tournament.
Should India Bat Virat Kohli At No. 4 During ICC Cricket World Cup 2023?
First things first, Kohli hasn’t batted at No. 4 in an ODI in over 43 months. Barring once each in 2019 and 2020, he hasn’t performed this role consistently enough since 2015. Having undergone a demotion to let KL Rahul and Ambati Rayudu to bat No. 3 in the latest incidents, Kohli had to do the same even for the likes of Rahul Dravid, Gautam Gambhir and Ajinkya Rahane in the past.
Readers must note that Kohli has a phenomenal ODI record at No. 4. Kohli, who has scored 1,767 runs across 39 innings, has the second-best average (55.21) and the third-best strike rate (90.66) among Indian cricketers with more than 500 runs in the given role. Furthermore, his seven ODI centuries (last against Sri Lanka in Ranchi in 2014) at No. 4 are the most among his fellow countrymen.
But be that as it may, Kohli batting at No. 4 would further add to the whole problem around the current team management not letting players settle or not giving them specialist roles. Not that one doubts Kohli’s potential at No. 4 – one would be naive to do that, this Indian team doesn’t need more needless changes so close to multi-team events.
Even though not a lot of ideal things have happened with Indian cricket of late, making Kohli leave the No. 3 position for someone who isn’t a specialist No. 3 either will go down as yet another situation which would be far away from ideal. Grappling to avoid ambiguity at the moment, such a move will only bolster it.
Ravi Shastri Disapproves KL Rahul’s Inclusion Asia Cup Playing XI
In the same conversation, Shastri also expressed disapproval regarding the presence of wicket-keeper batter Rahul in India’s Asia Cup Playing XI. For the uninitiated, Iyer and Rahul at Nos. 4 and 5 respectively are the only two contentious batting spots in the current Indian XI. While Iyer is recovering from a back injury, Rahul is recovering from a thigh injury.
“See, when you’re talking of a player [KL Rahul] who’s not played and is recovering from injury, to think of him in the XI of the Asia Cup, you’re asking a little too much of the player himself. And then you’re talking keeping. When a guy comes from an injury, the range of movement and things of that sort, so that’s a no no.”
At a time when the Indian cricket management is trying hard to ensure both Iyer and Rahul’s optimum fitness before two pivotal competitions, even one of them not making it has it in it to cost the team. The same, without any iota of doubt, will require India to bat replacement batters at positions which they’re not too comfortable with.
For example, either wicket-keeper batter Kishan will have to bat in the middle-order or one of the top-order batters will have to be demoted to accommodate Kishan at the top. Considering how both the moves will be registered as despairing last-minute changes, India’s best bet lies in fit Iyer and Rahul resuming in their above mentioned respective job descriptions.
