Glenn Maxwell joked and said that he hopes that India doesn’t pick his Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) teammate and ace batter Virat Kohli for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024 tournament.
Kohli has been the lone fighter for RCB as far as batting is concerned. He has scored 316 runs in 5 matches in IPL 2024 including one century, his 8th IPL ton.
However, reports in the media have suggested that many experts are not satisfied and have raised doubts over the batting legend's selection for the T20 World Cup in June this year.
Despite his runs, his critics are pointing out that his strike rate of 146.30 this season, which includes the joint slowest IPL century ever (off 67 balls), has ensured that the debate on his T20 World Cup fate continued.
Giving a lighter tone to the issue, Kohli's RCB teammate Glenn Maxwell has commented "I hope India don't pick him."
Recalling Kohli's half-century against Australia in the 2016 T20 World Cup, Maxwell laughed at those arguing Kohli's selection for the June 2 to 29 tournament to be jointly hosted by the USA and the West Indies.
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"Virat Kohli is the most clutch player I have ever played against. The innings he played against us in Mohali during the 2016 T20 World Cup are still the best innings I have ever seen played against me. His awareness of what he needs to do to win the game is just phenomenal.
I hope India don't pick him (for the T20 World Cup) because it will be great to not come up against him," he joked while talking to ESPNCricinfo.
Talking specifically about the questions around Kohli's selection, Maxwell said: "It's not surprising because there are 1.5 billion (people in India) and I reckon half of them are unbelievable cricketers in this country (laughs). It's a hard team to get into. You look at India's top T20 players who are all playing in this tournament (IPL 2024). They are phenomenal players and there should be heat on every player."
Kohli has played 117 T20Is, scoring 4037 runs at a strike rate of 138.16, including one hundred and 37 fifties.
