Should India take the gamble and make Virat Kohli open the batting?

(Cricket news) On Thursday, India defeated Afghanistan by 101 runs in their last Asia Cup match. Even though the match was a consolation, Indian fans had something massive to cheer for. Virat Kohli broke his century drought as he scored a magnificent 122 not out off 61 balls. In absence of Rohit Sharma, Kohli opened the innings and made the most of his opportunity. The ton was Kohli's 71st in international cricket and 1 in T20Is. This puts him on level with Ricky Ponting on international centuries with only Sachin Tendulkar ahead. He also completed 24,000 international runs in the innings. It had been 1021 days since Virst Kohli had scored a hundred and the fact that it came in a T20 game made it much more interesting. The innings was a good one even though he was dropped early on and the Afghanistan bowling was way below par.

KL Rahul in the post match press conference was asked whether the team would consider playing Kohli as an opener as he has been successful in that position. KL Rahul replied "Then what do you want me to do? Sit out on the bench?" The response was enough to suggest that there are no plans to open with Kohli when both Rohit and Rahul are available. It is definitely something for the management to think about. It is no secret that opening is Virat Kohli's best position in T20Is even though he does play well at number 3 as well. Kohli is India's best player across formats and if he is the most comfortable at the top then one of Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul can bat at 3.

India have done this in the past to fit Ishan Kishan in the squad as it was Rohit Sharma who batted in the middle order. Back in the day Sachin Tendulkar prefered to open the innings even though he was good at number 4. To let him bat at his best position, India played the likes of Sourav Ganguly, Gautam Gambhir and even Virender Sehwag in the middle order. It definitely can be done but it is then the question of whether Rahul or Rohit will be able to have the same impact as Kohli did in the middle order. India have 3 games each against South Africa and Australia to experiment before the World Cup and this is definitely something which is worth looking into.

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