India batting legend Sunil Gavaskar has opined on calls for senior players to be omitted from the T20 World Cup 2024 to be played in the West Indies and the USA.
After India's failure in the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma, rumors started circulating that both Sharma and Kohli would be phased out from the T20I team.
However, Kohli has been in exceptional form in T20 cricket over the past few months. In the IPL 2023, Kohli hit consecutive centuries, surpassing Chris Gayle's record for the most IPL hundreds.
Gavaskar touched upon the subject of Kohli’s inclusion in the ICC event in 2024 in a discussion on Sports Tak.
"The next T20 World Cup will be played in 2024. There will be another IPL before that in March-April. Kohli's form should be observed at that point. There is no point talking about it now. If we are talking about an upcoming T20 international, say India are playing a match in June, then he definitely fits into the team, the kind of form that he has shown.
But, speaking about the 2024 World Cup, which will be held in West Indies and America, the form of players needs to be observed in the IPL before that and then we can talk about selection for the World Cup squad,” he told Sports Tak.
After enduring a barren run of form for three years, Kohli roared back in form in all formats of the game and in the IPL as well since 2022. He amassed 639 runs in 14 matches in the IPL 2023, with an average of 53.25 and a strike rate of 139.82, including two centuries and six fifties.
While assessing Kohli's current form, Gavaskar reiterated that the 34-year-old unquestionably deserves a place in India's T20I squad for upcoming matches.
He added: "Virat would definitely be in my T20I team on current form for India’s upcoming matches in the format. He has scored two hundreds [in IPL 2023]. Hitting two hundreds in T20 cricket, even scoring 50 is difficult.
This great batter has notched up two hundreds. If I was a selector and India were playing a T20 in June this year, I would, without doubt, pick him in the squad."
India is expected to play 5 T20Is against West Indies in the Caribbean on their all format tour in July-August.
