Virat Kohli bats for Vijay Shankar: Going by the Indian captain’s words, one believes that Shankar will get another chance vs England.
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India captain Virat Kohli sounded unperturbed with respect to India’s middle-order woes during the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2019. Not that the Indian batsmen have been in dismal touch, but they haven’t been able to do as well as they were expected.
Speaking during the press conference on the eve of India’s match against England at Edgbaston, Kohli talked about how the middle-order batsmen haven’t had many opportunities to bat due to a formidable top-order.
“Look, that discussion is always going to go on because we’ve had such a strong top order that these guys have hardly had a chance to bat. When they bat, out of four times, if once or twice it doesn’t come off, then we feel like, oh, it’s not a strong middle-order, but we overlook the times that it has come good,” Kohli was quoted as saying.
Virat Kohli bats for Vijay Shankar
Other than the Bhuvneshwar Kumar-Mohammed Shami conundrum, India also face a confusion regarding picking one out of Vijay Shankar and Rishabh Pant. While Shankar has looked good, lack of big innings have enticed criticism on his side.
“It’s a strange one because he [Vijay Shankar] had a decent game against Pakistan. I think against Afghanistan on that pitch he looked really assured. Shot selection, again, we discussed with him for that game. Last game, again, he came out, he looked really good, and he got a beautiful ball from Kemar Roach,” Kohli said about Shankar.
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Showing his faith in the all-rounder, Kohli hoped of Shankar to convert his starts into a substantial innings. Having watched Shankar bat from non-striker’s end, the skipper expressed confidence regarding Shankar.
“So you can’t really sit down and pinpoint things. But I personally felt he looked really solid. There’s not much that needs to be tinkered. Sometimes in cricket you just need a bit of luck to get over from 30 to 60, and then you play a defining knock for the team.
“He’s very close to that, and we’re very confident he’s going to end up playing that kind of knock for us,” Kohli concluded.
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