Matthew Hayden backed Virat Kohli to continue batting at no. 3 for India in T20Is.
Former Indian batting coach Sanjay Bangar said that Virat Kohli’s hunger and rhythm are back after a break and he is now enjoying his game after the right-hander smashed yet another fifty in T20I cricket.
The dashing batter made his bat do the talking during his comeback series in the Asia Cup 2022 and then he played a couple of impressive innings against Australia in the recently concluded T20I series at home.
Kohli smashed a match-winning 63 as well as added over 100 runs with Suryakumar Yadav (69) to help Team India beat Australia by 6 wickets in the series decider to clinch the T20I series with a 2-1 margin.
Sanjay Bangar told Star Sports: “He is a champion batter. He has done that for India for such a long period of time. He knows he is in that phase where he is enjoying his game big time. He knows that the rhythm is back, the hunger is back, you can see that with the body language that he is displaying along with his mates. That's what you want to see in him, enjoying.”
He added, “There was a phase where the pressure was getting to him. But after the break, the sense of enjoyment is back, the feeling of hitting a cricket ball is back in his game.”
Meanwhile, former Australia opener Matthew Hayden backed Kohli to continue batting at No. 3 to take the control of India’s innings.
He said, “We have been speaking a lot about this. For me, it's almost a non-discussion. He bats at No. 3 for this reason.”
Hayden concluded, “KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma have got a really good opening partnership. You consolidate at No. 3. The glue is what Australia has been missing in this series, that is Steve Smith. You can obviously see the way that Suryakumar and he bat together as well. They enjoy batting together a lot.”