Former South African cricketer Jonty Rhodes said that everyone wants Virat Kohli to score runs in the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 but public should stay silent and let him do what he does best.
Team India will begin their T20 World Cup 2021 campaign against Pakistan on 24th October in Dubai. The tournament will also be Virat Kohli’s last mega-event as a T20I skipper.
With Kohli playing his last tournament as a T20I skipper, many fans want him to end on high and get back to scoring ways.
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The Indian skipper since the last couple of years has failed to score a century and score runs at a consistent rate. But his stats anyway don’t depict that he’s out of form and that’s the kind of standard he has set for himself.
With his form being a bit of concern, former South African player Jonty Rhodes said that everyone wants the Indian skipper to score runs every time he comes out to bat. He remarked that Virat Kohli is a man and not a machine and urged everyone to leave him alone.
"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 Rhodes told Times of India.
Rhodes said that to win the tournament, a team needs to win the death overs in T20 cricket and he feels from that perspective Jasprit Bumrah will play an important role for Team India.
"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.
Jonty Rhodes also feels that Rohit Sharma is an important asset for Team India as he can win the power plays and Virat Kohli in the middle will be the key ingredient.
He added that Hardik Pandya will also be crucial for India because of the way he bats and he can finish the games on high for his team.
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“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,” he concluded.
Notably, Indian players looked in good touch in the warm-up games. The Virat Kohli-led side dominated both England and Australia in their build-up to the T20 World Cup.
(Times of India inputs)
