Mumbai: Former India cricketers VVS Laxman, Sanjay Manjrekar and Harbhajan Singh gave the thumbs down Tuesday to Virat Kohli’s decision to bat at No.4 in the first ODI against Australia here.
Kohli, whose usual batting position is No. 3, pushed himself down the order to accommodate specialist openers Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul.
“I don’t see this plan working (Kohli at No 4). Even Sachin Tendulkar never liked batting at No 4 (reference to the 2007 World Cup). The last team you would like to experiment against is Australia,” Laxman said as an expert on a TV channel.
“Now again it is too late to change the combination. But may be Virat can come at No 3 and Rahul at No 4. Shikhar got some runs and so will have his confidence high,” Laxman said referring to Dhawan’s 74.
Spin great Harbhajan, who was also commentating on the game, said Kohli is the team’s best batsman and he should stick to his usual batting position.
“He has won so many games for India at No. 3. There is no need to change that,” said Harbhajan.
Manjrekar pointed out: “It is not a great move as it pushes Shreyas Iyer down to No. 5 after you gave him time to settle at No. 4 (in the earlier series). If India continue with this, they might be pushed to the same situation that they were in the past.”
Kohli came out to bat in the 28th and lasted only 14 balls.
“”I would love it if I see Kohli comes to bat in 28th over,” former Australia opener Matthew Hayden said.
Kohli however, said during the presentation ceremony that there is no need to panic. The Indian said that he might have to ‘rethink’ his plans going into the second ODI in Rajkot.
“(On batting at 4) we’ve had this discussion many times in the past as well. Because of the way KL (Rahul) has been batting, we have tried to fit him in the batting line-up. But I don’t think it’s gone quite our way whenever I batted at No.4 so probably will have to rethink about that one,” Kohli said.
“It’s about giving some guys opportunities. Every now and then, it’s about putting people up there and testing them. People need to relax and not panic with one game. I am allowed to experiment a little bit and fail at times. Today was one of the days it didn’t come off,” added Kohli.
Agencies
