Former India player turned commentator Aakash Chopra has said that Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli need to fire with the bat in India’s 2024 T20 World Cup Super 8 clash against Bangladesh. The two Asian teams will play against each other in North Sound, Antigua, on Saturday, June 22. Rohit has scored 76 runs, including an unbeaten 52 in India’s tournament opener against Ireland, at an average of 25.33 in four innings as well. Kohli, meanwhile, has managed a mere 29 runs at a dismal average of 7.25 in his four hits as well.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra said, “The openers need to score runs because they haven’t scored runs thus far. Rohit Sharma scored runs in one match but it seems like that was last year. It was a match against Ireland in New York. After that, left-arm pacers have troubled him, whether it’s Shaheen Shah Afridi, Saurabh Netravalkar or Fazalhaq Farooqi, to whom he got out in the last match. Mustafizur Rahman will come here. So he will have to play slightly cautiously. The captain has to score runs because when you reach the semi-final and final, and especially when you play on the dustbowl-like pitch in Guyana, you won’t be able to score runs with confidence if you are not in form. Then you will get caught out.”
However, he also shared that Rohit needs to be back among the runs before the knockout matches as well. Chopra also added that England might be India’s semi-final opponent and that they will exploit Rohit’s weakness as well. He also opined that Virat Kohli too hasn’t lived up to his standards in the ongoing T20 World Cup as well.
“Virat Kohli is there with him (Rohit). He has scored 29 runs in total in this entire tournament. He is a much better player than that, there is no doubt about that. It seemed like he wasn’t in rhythm at the start in the last match, and when he seemed to be regaining rhythm in an over, he got out. In my opinion, Virat Kohli needs to score runs because whatever applies to Rohit Sharma, exactly applies to Virat Kohli as well. You have started going with a new opening pair with the hope that they are the two most experienced Indian players but nothing has happened in that partnership thus far,” Aakash Chopra concluded.
