ICC Cricket World Cup 2019: Virat Kohli backs Vijay Shankar to perform with the bat

The 2019 World Cup has turned out to be an excellent one for Team India, who is second on the points table and is the only unbeaten team in the tournament. However, one of their members, Vijay Shankar, making his maiden appearance in the mega event, hasn’t had the best of outings so far. In his first match versus Pakistan, he came to bowl in place of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and ended up picking up a couple of crucial wickets.

But with the bat, he has been a tad disappointing. The Tamil Nadu-cricketer could manage only 29 against Afghanistan after which part-timer Rahmat Shah trapped him in front. But he was involved in a 50 plus partnership with the very experienced MS Dhoni. Against the Jason Holder-captained Windies, speedster Kemar Roach produced a peach of a delivery to get rid of the right-hander for 14.

In the meantime, Virat Kohli, the Indian skipper, has backed the under-pressure Shankar and said that it’s a matter of time before he gets going with the willow. Though Shankar couldn’t covert his start against the Afghans, Kohli was happy with the application he showed in that encounter.

I personally felt he looked really solid: Kohli

“It’s a strange one because he 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. So you can’t really sit down and pinpoint things,” Kohli said while intereacting with the media on the eve of their match against England in Birmingham.

“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,” Virat added.

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Barring a bit of stutter against Afghanistan, India has been a brute force to reckon with. A win against England on Sunday will help the Men in Blue go through to the semi-finals.