Virat Kohli opens up about India’s middle order riddle

Indian Captain Virat Kohli has spoken up about the problem of plenty in the Indian middle order and what he is expecting out of the England series.

India won comfortably in the two match T20I series against Ireland which brought expected results. The Ireland team was expected to at least put up a fight but they failed as India registered comprehensive victories in back to back matches.

India have several contenders for the middle order spot in KL Rahul, Suresh Raina, Dinesh Karthik and Shreyas Iyer. While the top order is more or less settled with Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli forming the top 3, the middle order is still to be finalized.

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In the Ireland series, Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Suresh Raina were the standout performers with the bat while Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal troubled the Irish batsmen. They were not able to pick the wrist spin and variations of the spin twins and as a result bundled out cheaply in both the matches.

In the press conference on the eve of the England T20Iseries, Kohli said, “Well, we certainly are going to be more flexible. We want everyone to have a go. We will throw in a few surprises here and there. In T20Is, because it is not such a long innings, we can afford to do that.

“At the start of any tour, we are as excited as the opposition. Especially, when you are playing a tough side such as England, it is a chance to test yourself. It gives an opportunity to test fringe players. We are going to try a few players, we want to test their skills, especially in limited over crickets.”

Another thing that India might look to do is to play Rohit Sharma at No 4. Keeping in mind KL Rahul’s recent run of form, slot him as an opener. Dhoni, though, is almost a surety at No 5.