Virat Kohli opens up on the possibility of him opening in T20Is in future

Indian skipper Virat Kohli played a masterstroke by promoting himself up the batting order to open alongside Rohit Sharma in the fifth T20 International against England. The decision worked in the favor of the team as the two pillars of the Indian team, Rohit and Virat were successful in giving India a dream start while batting first and as a result, India emerged victorious in the match and series.

Virat’s splendid show while opening the innings also started a debate among the fans and analysts on whether the captain should continue his role as an opener or should bat at his regular position of Number 3. When asked about his opinion on the same, the captain reckoned that it was a strategic move and he enjoyed batting with Rohit.

“Firstly, the combination that plays on the field, the selectors do not have any role in that just like the management does not have any role in who gets selected. Secondly, as Rohit mentioned it was a strategic move, but we did enjoy batting together in the last T20I.

“We did enjoy our partnership and we saw the effects of us batting together and knowing what we can do to the opposition if we bat throughout. It is not a guarantee that it is going to be continued in the future,” said Virat during a virtual press conference on Monday.

I am going to open in the IPL to keep all options open, says Virat Kohli

Further, Virat Kohli revealed that he will be essaying the role of the opener in IPL 2021 for RCB to keep his options option and bat at whatever position the team wants him to. The debutant Suryakumar Yadav was impressive in both his batting innings while playing at Number 3, thus Kohli has no issues in making way for him at that position if he continues his stunning performance.

“I am going to open in the IPL to keep all options open. I have batted at three, four and now I need to understand my role as an opener which I have done successfully in the past in T20 cricket so that I provide an option to open up a slot for someone like Surya, if he can continue to bat like that, I should be open to playing any kind of role that the team requires me to.

“We will have a conversation about this when we get closer to the T20 World Cup. It would be interesting to see how I go about my job as an opener in the IPL,” he added.