Will Virat Kohli be among the Indian cricketers picked for the T20 World Cup in Australia this October-November?
A few months ago, this question would seem like heresy. After all, we are talking about a batter who redefined the art of batsmanship this past decade.
After his poor run in IPL 2022 -- where he scored 341 runs at an unKohli average of 22.73 at a unVirat strike rate of 115.99 -- followed by scores of 1 and 11 in the two Twenty20s he played in England on Saturday and Sunday, calls for his ouster from India's Twenty20 side have grown louder.
Among those baying for Kohli's exit from the Indian T20I team is the familiar voice of former England captain Michael Vaughan.
'There are going to be big question marks over Virat the next time he plays T20 cricket if these players keep producing the magic when they come into the side,' Vaughan told Cricbuzz, speaking likely of batters like Suryakumar Yadav and Deepak Hooda.
Earlier, Vaughan had said that Kohli would be better off taking a three-month sabbatical and 'go and sit on a beach'.
Both Kapil Dev and Ajay Jadeja in recent days have asked why Kohli can't be dropped from the playing eleven. Jadeja said he would not pick Kohli in his T20I team.
'I find these statements to be funny. You should look at the records of those people making such comments,' says Virat's childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma.
'You are talking about the T20 format where Virat's average is 50 plus, his strike rate is 140,' Sharma told ANI.
'He has these records in almost 99 matches and not just 5 matches. If you are going to feel that after IPL's failure that Virat shouldn't be included in the World T20 squad,' Sharma argued, 'then I don't think these people have done their homework correctly.'
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