Virat Kohli, the Indian captain is itching to regain his batting form at the T20 World Cup opener against Afghanistan at Barbados on Thursday.
Kohli, who opens the inning with Rohit Sharma, has not had a good start in the tournament as expected by his supporters. He has played three innings and scored just 5 runs from 9 balls bowled to him.
Thus making an average of 1.67 in 3 innings with scores of 1,4 and 0 for an opener is questionable. Nevertheless, immediately before this T20 World Cup, at RCB (Royal Challengers Bengaluru), Kohli amassed a record-breaking total of seven hundred forty one runs during the IPL (Indian Premier League) season that ended in 2024.
However on Thursday at Kensington Oval versus tough Afghanistan opposition where former South African speedster Dale Steyn sees danger for Indian openers
“Beware Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma; he can knock your pegs up,” said Steyn in a Star Sports video referring to flying Afghan paceman Fazalhaq Farooqi.
Invariably, Farooqui has shattered the top order all through this tournament with wickets adorning his name as he tops the list with twelve scalps from four matches inclusive of best figures of five for nine. Also impressive along with his wicket tally is Farooqui’s economy rate of 5.58.
For instance Steyn mention Rahmanullah Gurbaz as one among them who can go after Bumrah hence why their face-off should be anticipate more than anything else on day two if no rain falls tomorrow.
Surprisingly Steyn mentioned about Fazalhaq Farooqi being dangerous towards Virat Kohli & Rohit Sharma but did not have any mention about these two openers being careful about him.
“Beginning with India, from a bowling standpoint, Jasprit Bumrah. Absolutely phenomenal! He’s great with all three disciplines – Tests, T20s, ODIs,” said Steyn.
Speaking about Indian batting, Steyn added “SKY (Suryakumar Yadav) is gonna come good with the bat. Just watch out for him from India’s point of view.”
Bangladesh and Australia are in the same group with Afghanistan and India in Group 1 of the Super 8s stage.
