No problem coming down at No 4 if needed: Virat
HYDERABAD: India captain Virat Kohli said Indian Premier League performances --- good or bad --- won’t influence the selection process of the World Cup, meaning this is it for those who want to make a final impression.
“I don’t seethe IPL having any influence on World Cup selection. That will be a very radical sort of analysis,” Kohli said on Friday, ahead of the first ODI against Australia. This more or less shuts the door on Dinesh Karthik, who wasn’t picked for the Australia ODIs while Rishabh Pant still remains in the race to be picked in the final 15 for the World Cup.
“Before we head into IPL, we need to be absolutely clear of what team we want for the World Cup. I don’t see anything changing on how the I PL goes for any of the players. If one or two players do not have a good IPL season, it doesn’t mean they are out of the picture. Those things are not going to matter,” said Kohli.
Kohli was clear about not tinkering with the bowling combi- nations while he was open to shuffling the batting order. “I don’t think playing a bowler less is a good idea because with the extra fielder in till the 40th over, it becomes very difficult to sort of get a few guys to chip in with a few overs here and there. We will have to work out the batting combination to try and give game-time to the guys we want to. But I don’t see the bowling combination changing,” said Kohli.
Experimentation doesn’t mean India have any less motivation to win this series, said Kohli. “We are playing to win the series or else I will leave the ball to hit the stumps. If we want to see how a few guys play in a certain situation, we will play them again in that situation. It’s not like if a guy is not playing in a certain situation, he doesn’t have the ability,” he said.
No 4, no problem
Kohli said he has no problem batting at No 4 if the team requires that. Chief coach Ravi Shastri recently indicated that Kohli could move down from No 3 if seaming conditions at the World Cup call for such a strategy. His average of 62.98 at No 3 and 58.13 at No 4 tell it would hardly make a difference. “I’ve batted a lot of times at No 4, so I don’t necessarily need to try it out because I have done that a lot of times. My game doesn’t change because the template is quite similar. In any given situation, I back myself to play the game that I know.”