Team India opened their T20 World Cup 2024 campaign with an emphatic eight-wicket victory over Ireland at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York on Wednesday (June 5).
Before the game, there was a lot of debate over India’s opening combination. As it turned out, the Men in Blue went with the experienced duo of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, ignoring young left-hander Yashasvi Jaiswal in the playing XI.
While skipper Rohit played a match-winning knock of 52 before getting retired hurt, Kohli endured a rare failure as he was dismissed for just 1.
Before India's match with Ireland, Kohli averaged 81.5 in the T20 World Cup across five editions. The star batter successfully converted 14 of his 25 knocks into 50-plus scores.
Even though Kohli registered his lowest score in the showpiece tournament, legendary cricketer Sunil Gavaskar expects the milestone man to bounce back against arch-rivals Pakistan.
“The way I look at it is…great players like Steve Smith, Virat Kohli, Babar Azam and Joe Root. They fail in one match; they wanna make up for it in the next match. They want to score double the runs. So whatever runs he might not have gotten (against Ireland), you know, he wants to score double the runs. And who better to score double the runs than against Pakistan,” Gavaskar told Star Sports.
India are due to face Pakistan in their second Group A match at the same venue on Sunday (June 9).
Notably, Virat Kohli always seems to reserve his best for the Pakistan cricket team. While Kohli is yet to play a Test match against the arch-rivals, he boasts a fabulous record in the white-ball formats.
Virat has played 16 ODIs against Pakistan so far, amassing 678 runs at an average of 52.15 and a strike rate of 100.29 with three hundreds and two half-centuries.
In T20Is, Kohli’s domination against Pakistan goes to a different level altogether. He has scored 488 runs in 10 games at an average of 81.33 and a strike rate of 123.85 with five fifties.
Moreover, Virat Kohli starred with the bat in India’s nail-biting victory over Pakistan in the 2022 edition of T20 World Cup at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Chasing 160 to win, the Men in Blue were in dire straits at 31/4 after 6.1 overs. Amid the pressure situation, Kohli rose to the occasion as he smashed 82* off 53 balls to script India’s four-wicket victory.
