T20 World Cup 2021: 3 Selection headaches for Virat Kohli ahead of the tournament

India are the no.2 ranked T20I team and they recently beat no.1 England 3-2 in the five-match series in Ahmedabad. Moreover, the fact that Virat Kohli’s Men in Blue handed debuts to a few of their youngsters, makes the victory even more memorable.

In the meantime, despite doing well in the shortest format, India have a few chinks in their armour that could take colossal form if not dealt with in an apt manner. The T20 World Cup is scheduled for later this year and being the hosts, India are deemed as the favourites.

With the Indian Premier League (IPL) and other international fixtures ahead, the Indian players would be getting adequate practice prior to the mega event. But there are a few issues, which need to be looked into as a matter of priority. Otherwise, the same problems could haunt them.

In the article, let’s take a look at three areas Virat Kohli and India need to work on before the T20 World Cup:

1) Spin combination

Back in 2017, Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal started shouldering the mantle of India’s spin-bowling in ODIs and T20Is. Even as the former has kept performing, Kuldeep has gone into a slump and has had to warm the bench quite a few times.

Kuldeep hasn’t played consistently even for his IPL side, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). During this while, a number of Indian spinners have come to the fore. Ravindra Jadeja’s pin-point accuracy causes the batters problems. He has also grown leaps and bounds as far as his batting is concerned.

Washington Sundar and Axar Patel have impressed quite a bit as well. Rahul Tewatia also broke into the T20I squad against England. Not to forget Rahul Chahar, who has represented India as well. It remains to be seen who India go with, in the end.

2) Opening pair

It goes without saying, Rohit Sharma is one of India’s first-choice openers in the T20 format as he has four tons to his name. The problem lies in selecting Rohit’s partner. The issue has been aggravated by KL Rahul’s poor run of form in the T20Is against England.

In three games, the 28-year-old couldn’t open his account twice and managed one run. He didn’t look in any sort of rhythm whatsoever. But overall, Rahul averages 39.92 in T20Is, numbers which show his credibility as a batsman.

India also have Shikhar Dhawan in their ranks, though he hasn’t tasted a whole lot of success in the last 12 months or so. Recently, Virat also showed that he can step in as the opener if need be. He scored an unbeaten 80 and shared a 94-run partnership for the opening wicket off nine overs along with Rohit.

3) Sorting out the batting order

Though India are winning games, their batting order looks a little unsettled for the time being. The problem isn’t alarming, but can shape into something humongous if not looked into. Suryakumar Yadav scored a fifty in the fourth T20I and Rishabh Pant also impressed with his power-hitting after finding his place back in the team.

Shreyas Iyer also brings in a sense of calmness in the middle. Though it went in vain, his knock of 67 in the first T20I at the Narendra Modi Stadium grabbed the limelight. Hardik Pandya, time and again, has shown the damage he can do with the bat in hand.

If the top-order lays the platform, Hardik can well be promoted up the order. The batting lineup isn’t short of talent or firepower, but going into the T20 World Cup, the players should be made aware of their roles.