Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar believes that Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma will not repeat their mistakes from the T20 World Cup 2024. In his column at Hindustan Times, Manjrekar has said that it was Virat and Rohit’s cautious approach that led to India losing their semi-final against England in the T20 World Cup 2022. Manjrekar, however, believed that the duo would not make the same mistakes once again.
Rohit Sharma has adopted an ultra-aggressive approach with the bat ever since. He was once of India’s best hitters in the ODI World Cup 2023, held in India. Sharma continued the same approach after the World Cup and even brought up a T20I hundred against Afghanistan in January, this year.
Kohli on the other hand, has been in stellar form in the second half of the IPL. Kohli rediscovered his power-hitting against spin outside of the powerplay and put up impressive performances. Kohli was the driving force behind RCB’s incredible 6-match winning run, which helped them qualify for the playoffs this season.
“In the last T20 World Cup two years ago, in the semis against England in Adelaide, India batted first and got only 168 runs in 20 overs, and a shocking 62 in the first 10. The bulk of deliveries in this crucial period were faced by the seniors, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. Rohit got 27 off 28 balls at a strike rate of 96, while Virat secured 50 off 40 balls at a strike rate of 125, eventually getting out in the 18th over,” Sanjay Manjrekar wrote in his column.
“India had lost the tournament right there. Thanks to Hardik Pandya’s 63 off 33 balls, at a strike rate of 190, India had something to show on the board. England, unsurprisingly, chased the target in 16 overs with 10 wickets in hand,” Manjrekar recounted from the T20 World Cup 2022.
Manjrekar believed that the outside noises that were criticising Virat Kohli forced him to change his ways and made him a better T20 player than he was 2 years ago. Manjrekar hoped that Kohli would not focus on batting longer than batting quicker in important games that India would play in the World Cup.
“Having said this, we can be sure of one thing. Rohit and Virat will not commit the same mistakes made in that semis. It’s worth acknowledging that Virat is not the same T20 player he was two years ago. He must know deep down, surely, that the ‘outside noise’ has actually made him a better T20 batter today than he was two years ago,” Manjrekar wrote in his column.
“Is there still a lingering risk attached to Virat – that when it comes to the big stage, the knockout games, he is preoccupied with batting longer rather than batting quicker? For Indian cricket’s sake, let’s hope this preoccupation is buried deep,” the former batter concluded.
