West Indies batting legend Brian Lara has backed senior Team India player Virat Kohli and captain Rohit Sharma to play in the 2024 T20 World Cup, which will take place in the West Indies and the USA as well. Lara also added that India have a strong T20 side, but shared that the experience of players like Kohli and Rohit cannot be replaced in the team as well.
However, both Rohit and Kohli have not played any T20I for Team India since the Indian team’s 10-wicket defeat to England in the 2022 T20 World Cup semi-final in Adelaide as well. Speaking to ANI, Lara backed both Rohit and Virat to be part of India’s T20 World Cup squad next year as well.
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“I think whichever team India picks, they are going to be a force to be reckoned with. But you can’t replace experience. What Virat and Rohit bring is a lot of experience. They know the conditions in the Caribbean. They have played there. I wouldn’t say that they should dictate their future but I think the sort of players, the legends that they are in the game, I am almost sure there will be a lot of respect in finding out what they want to do, how far they want to push it and make the decision then,” Brian Lara told the news agency.
Incidentally, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are the top two run-getters in the T20I format. In 115 matches, Kohli has 4,008 runs which came at an average of 52.73 and a strike rate is 137.96 whereas Rohit Sharma has hit 3,853 runs at an average of 31.32 and a strike rate of 139.24 as well.
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“I won’t say they are struggling. They played their best cricket in the World Cup. I think what we experience is how powerful what we perceive to be failure is – which is the Australians losing a couple of matches, understanding where they had to play, and where they have to improve,” Brian Lara concluded.
