'He tried to go hard from the word go' - Rohit Sharma reflects on Virat Kohli's duck in dramatic 3rd T20I

Star India batter Virat Kohli didn’t have a memorable outing in the second innings of his T20I return as he registered his first-ever golden duck in the format. The right-handed batter fell prey to Afghanistan’s Fareed Ahmed as he hit his first ball straight to Ibrahim Zadran at mid-off during the third T20I on Wednesday, January 17 at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.

Reflecting on Kohli’s dismissal, India captain Rohit Sharma stated that the 35-year-old tried to go hard from the word go which he doesn’t do normally. Notably, Kohli took on the Afghanistan seamers quite early in his innings during the second T20I as well, as he played a brisk innings of 29 (16) and was eventually caught at mid-off against Naveen ul Haq.

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"We only need to give the players clarity to the players about their position and the manner of cricket we want them to play with. The boys know what to expect when they come out onto the ground. As you saw today, Kohli tried to go hard from the word go, he normally does not do that, but he showed the intent. Same with Samson, he was out first ball, but the intent was there," Rohit told Jio Cinema.

It was his fifth duck in T20Is and 35^th overall in international cricket which made him surpass his idol Sachin Tendulkar in the ignominious feat for most ducks by an Indian batter (excluding tailenders). The Delhi-born cricketer was also just six runs shy of completing 12,000 T20 runs and becoming the first Indian to do so but failed to achieve the milestone in his IPL team Royal Challengers Bangalore’s home ground.

Notably, Kohli has 11,994 runs to his name in T20 cricket from 359 innings at an average of 41.21 and a strike rate of 133.42 with eight hundreds and 91 fifties. India captain Rohit Sharma is the second Indian on the list with 11156 runs from 413 innings.

Rohit Sharma and Rinku Singh bail India out of trouble in 3rd T20I

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Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma (121* off 69) and Rinku Singh (69* off 39) put on a record-breaking 190*-run stand for the fifth wicket off 95 balls to help India recover from 22/4 to reach 212/4 against Afghanistan in the third T20I. In reply, Afghanistan tied the score with fifties from Rahmanullah Gurbaz (50 off 32), Ibrahim Zadran (50 off 41) and Gulbadin Naib (55* off 23). The winner of the match was finally decided via two super overs, with Ravi Bishnoi successfully defending 11 runs in the second one to win the game for the Men in Blue.