Former India cricketers Krishnamachari Srikkanth and Irfan Pathan have backed talismanic batter Virat Kohli to bat at number three position in their predicted playing eleven for the upcoming T20 World Cup, scheduled to begin on October 16 in Australia.
Team India will begin its prepration for the showpiece event through the three-match series against Australia, followed by South Africa at home, beginning September 20 in Mohali.
After struggling with the bat for a long time, Kohli took a break of a month and a half from the game ahead of the recently concluded Asia Cup. The run-machine then roared back to form in the continental tournament and also ended it as the second-highest run-getter. Notably, Kohli amassed 276 runs in six matches at a strike rate of 147.59, including 122 against Afghanistan and a brace of fifties against Hong Kong and Pakistan respectively.
“My playing 11, wherever you play, whether you’re playing in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney or Perth, my playing 11 is always fixed. For the first game — KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli — number three, Suryakumar Yadav – number four, number five is Hardik Pandya, number six is Rishabh Pant, number seven — Ashwin, eight — Chahal, 9, 10, 11 — in this particular team will be Bhuvneshwar Kumar, (Jasprit) Bumrah and of course Harshal Patel,” said Srikkanth on ‘Follow The Blues’ show on Star Sports.
However, Pathan had a slightly different outlook as compared to Srikkanth on who should start in the playing XI for the Indian Team ahead of the Men’s T20 World Cup, choosing to keep Dinesh Karthik as lone keeper instead of Rishabh Pant.
“See, in my opinion, if you’re playing the first match, you need to have some experienced bowlers including one spinner. So, from the top, my playing 11 would be – Rohit, KL Rahul, number three – Virat (Kohli), number four – Suryakumar Yadav, number five – Deepak Hooda, number six – Hardik Pandya, number seven – Dinesh Karthik,” Pathan experssed.
He further added that he wants to make space for young left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh to be included sometime in the tournament.
“Number eight will be a right arm leg spinner so it would be (Yuzvendra) Chahal, 9 to 11, here there will be Jasprit Bumrah, Harshal Patel and along with that you can go for Bhuvneshwar Kumar. So, there will be a combination here, three fast bowlers out of which two are quality fast bowlers, who will be able to bowl at the death as well. And I will make sure that I have the combination and the liberty to choose from the three fast bowlers, even Arshdeep (Singh) to handle the death bowling So, in my opinion, in the playing 11, the spinner is clear, it’s just whether I can make space for Arshdeep in the team,” he concluded.