'Every Time There's a Question About Virat Kohli...': Vikram Rathour Not Worried Over India Opener's Poor Start to World Cup
Virat Kohli was in top form ahead of the start of T20 World Cup. (AP Photo)
Batting coach Vikram Rathour seemed quite amused by a query on Virat Kohli after India’s fourth and final Group A match of the ongoing 2024 T20 World Cup against Canada was called off due to wet outfield. Kohli has made a lean start to his campaign after managing scores of 1, 4 and 0 from his first three innings of the competition.
Given he was in excellent run of form in the lead up to the world cup that saw him score over 700 runs in IPL 2024, it has been an unusual start for the batting superstar. The challenging pitches in New York didn’t make life easy for Kohli and with India flying to Florida for their final group assignment, it was expected the changed conditions might work in the opener’s favour as he would get some runs under his belt before the Super Eight stage gets underway.
Alas, it was not to be as the match was abandoned without toss.
So will the lack of runs be a concern for Kohli?
“I love it when every time I come there is a question about Virat Kohli, whether he is doing well or not. No concern at all, no concern at all,” Rathour told reporters on Saturday.
“He (Kohli) has been batting superbly from the tournament that he came from (IPL). Couple of dismissals here, doesn’t change anything, he is batting really well,” he added.
Kohli has been in good touch in the nets and is a little hungrier given the start he has had, Rathour says he’s in a good space.
“Actually, it’s good that he is a little hungrier, he is really keen to do well and really switched on. It’s a good space to be as a batsman, I think. Looking forward to some good games and we’ve watched some good innings from him,” he said.
India played as many as four allrounders in their playing XI during the first round including Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel and Shivam Dube.
Will India stick to the combination in the upcoming matches?
“Again, we need to be a flexible team. We need to look at the conditions that are in front of us and be ready to deal with those. So as a team, we are going to be really flexible, I think. We’ll react to what (conditions) we get on the day. We have enough sources in our team to deal with any kind of conditions,” Rathour responded.
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