'If I had to pick a T20 side now, Virat Kohli probably won't be there: Ajay Jadeja

Virat Kohli’s form has been a cause of concern for a long time and it was no different during the second T20I against England in Edgbaston as his short stay at the crease was ended by debutant Richard Gleeson. The batting megastar walked back to the dugout with just one run to his name from three deliveries.

Expressing disappointment on Kohli’s lackluster performance in the last game, former India batter Ajay Jadeja has said that Virat will probably find no place if he had to pick a T20 side. The 33-year-old who was rested for the series opener misjudged a delivery from Gleeson in the seventh over where Dawid Malan went on to complete a superb catch running backward.

Virat Kohli is a choice that you have to make: Ajay Jadeja

“Virat Kohli is a special player. If it wasn’t Virat Kohli, he wouldn’t have probably played Test cricket as well,” Jadeja said while speaking on Sony Sports.

“You look at the numbers and say ‘oh, over the last 8, 10 matches, he hasn’t scored a hundred’. But you don’t leave him out just because he hasn’t scored a hundred. You don’t leave him out because of what he is done in the past”, he added.

“It depends on whom you want to play. I feel you have a choice, it’s a tough one to make. If I had to pick a T20 side, Virat probably won’t be there,” the former India skipper further added.

Virat Kohli was selected ahead of an in-form Deepak Hooda who has been very impressive with the bat in the last few weeks.  Meanwhile, a forgettable outing in Edgbaston meant that Kohli continued to face his worst-ever batting slump as this was his 76th innings where he failed to register a century across formats.

This is indeed a worrying sign for India heading into the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka and the T20 World Cup in Australia in the coming months. It now remains to be seen whether the batting icon makes his bat do the talking in the third game at Trent Bridge on Sunday, July 10.