Despite being in great form in the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League 2024, Indian legend Virat Kohli has faced criticism for scoring runs at a slow strike rate, but former West Indies batsman Brian Lara has expressed confidence in the future. While advocating the inclusion of Virat Kohli in the team for the T20 World Cup, he said that his usefulness is more than the strike rate. Royal Challengers Bangalore batsman Kohli scored a century in 67 balls against Rajasthan Royals in Jaipur, which was the joint slowest century in the tournament along with Manish Pandey in 2009.
What did Lara say at Star Sports press room event?
Strike rate depends on the batting order and a strike rate of 130-140 is not bad for an opener. But if you come in the middle order then you may need to score runs at a strike rate of 150 or 160. In this IPL, you must have seen that in the last overs of the innings, the batsmen are scoring runs at a strike rate of 200. He said, an opening batsman like Kohli usually starts the innings with a strike rate of 130 and then he has a chance to finish the innings with a strike rate of 160.
Lara said this about the opening pair in T20 World Cup
On Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, Brian Lara said that opening the innings with Kohli and Rohit in the T20 World Cup can be an attractive option, but he wants to try out an experienced player as well as a young player for this position. want. He said, I think it will be very good for India to have Rohit and Virat as openers for the World Cup in West Indies. However, I believe that you should have a young player at the beginning of the innings and one of these experienced players in the middle order should have the responsibility of shaping the innings. The left-handed batsman said, if these experienced players get out early, if this happens then it will have a negative impact on the team. So, between Rohit and Virat, I will use one at the top and the other at third.
Lara said about Yashasvi Jaiswal
When the in-form Yashasvi Jaiswal was asked, he said that the team has to be selected for the T20 World Cup and it is possible that this thing is in the player's mind. Jaiswal, who was in excellent form in the Test series against England, could score only 39 runs in four matches at an average of 9.75 in the IPL. The 54-year-old former player said, “Earlier this year he had performed brilliantly in the Test series. I think he is very worried (about the selection). His influence is visible in batting, he definitely has the ability but he is in a hurry to play the shots.
Try your best to score runs and selection for the World Cup will be automatic
He said, it is absolutely natural that this is going on in the minds of young players like Jaiswal or Shubman Gill or Abhishek Sharma or Ryan Parag. They know that if they score runs here they can be included in India's World Cup squad. But you have to separate these two things. I struggled with this during my playing days. My advice to him is to focus on the IPL, try your best to score runs and selection for the World Cup will happen automatically.