Virat Kohli will be stepping down as India’s T20I captain after the T20 World Cup 2021 and the’s no doubt the cricketing maverick would be aiming to end his tenure as T20I skipper with a World Cup win.
India are also desperate to win their first ICC title since the Champions Trophy win in 2013. And for the very same reason, the BCCI under the leadership of president Sourav Ganguly has appointed former captain MS Dhoni as the mentor of the team for the ongoing ICC event.
Kohli’s India will be opening their campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan on 24 October amid immense expectations back home.
Former South Africa player Jonty Rhodes has come out in support of Kohli and has urged everyone to leave the cricketer alone as he gets ready for one of the biggest challenges of his career.
“We all want Virat Kohli to score runs but he is a man, not a machine. He wears his heart on his sleeve. We’ve seen how he deals with the opposition when he’s batting on the field. He’s always in their face. He is a kind of player. I think the expectation from him – (we keep saying) – oh we want Virat to score runs, you better believe he wants to score runs. Because he’s a captain who loves to lead from the front. So, I don’t have any advice for him. We all need to be quiet and let Virat do what he does. We’d love to see Virat Kohli perform,” Jonty told the Times of India.
Speaking about the players who can win the tournament for India, Jonty leaned towards players like Jasprit Bumrah and Rohit Sharma.
“You’ve got to win the death overs in T20 cricket. So, whether you’re batting first in the powerplay or you are chasing or containing in the last four overs of the game, whoever wins the last ball, wins the game. So, it doesn’t really matter what happens in the middle. So, from that perspective, (Jasprit) Bumrah is such an important part,” he said.
“In batting, Rohit Sharma has an important role for India because he can win power-plays very very easily, just the way that he bats. Kohli in the middle is a key ingredient to what they do. But then as a finisher, a guy like Hardik Pandya is obviously a crucial player with both bat and ball. Because of the way he bats, you want players to be finishing games for you in those last four overs. He’s pretty devastating. There’s a handful of players but India will be hoping for good team performance and that possibly will be the difference.”