“Shame on BCCI” found a place among the social media network X's top trends after reports suggested that Team India's think tank, including captain Rohit Sharma, head coach Rahul Dravid, and the chief of the national selection committee, Ajit Agarkar, were set to drop Virat Kohli from the squad for the upcoming T20 World Cup in the West Indies and the US later this year.

 

An Indian media outlet claimed that India's chairman of selectors, Ajit Agarkar, has been asked by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) top brass to convince Virat Kohli to make way for youngsters in the team for the T20 World Cup.

 

“While the powers-that-be in Indian cricket are tight-lipped, it is understood that Virat Kohli is not a certainty for the showpiece event in the US and the West Indies in Jun,” the newspaper said. 

 

Interestingly, the dilemma over Virat Kohli's place in India's T20 squad for the World Cup comes despite the Delhi-born cricketer being the highest run-getter in the last edition of the competition in Australia in 2022.

 

Moreover, if one talks about strike rate, which is the most crucial factor for a batter in T20Is, Virat Kohli's strike rate was much better than Rohit Sharma's in the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia.

 

Unlike Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma hasn't been in the best of forms in T20Is. The 36-year-old made only 656 runs at an average of 24.29 and a strike rate of 134.42 in T20Is in 2022, the last year he featured for Team India in the format.

 

In contrast, Virat Kohli was a prolific scorer in 2022, scoring 781 runs in 20 T20I matches at a superb average of 55.78 and a strike rate of 138.23.

 

Despite that, Rohit Sharma would captain India in the T20 World Cup, with BCCI's all-powerful Secretary Jay Shah confirming the development to the media earlier this year. 

 

“We may have lost the final of the 2023 ODI World Cup. But we won hearts there by winning 10 matches in a row. I would like to say that I am confident that India will lift the 2024 T20 World Cup under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy at Barbados,” Jay Shah said in Rajkot last month.

 

On the contrary, he was non-committal about Virat Kohli's role in the upcoming ICC event.

 

“We will discuss Virat's role in due course,” Jay Shah noted at the same function. 

 

According to the report, the Indian selectors believe that Virat Kohli cannot come to terms with the demands of modern T20 cricket, wherein a batter is expected to go ballistic from the word go, and hence the likes of Rinku Singh, who has done exceedingly well for India in his short career are better suited to feature in the marquee competition.

 

It is worth noting that in the 15 T20I matches that Rinku Singh has played for India, his strike rate stands at a phenomenal 176, making him an almost automatic choice for selection in the T20 World Cup squad. 

 

Yet, all is not lost for Virat Kohli. The report stated further that the national selectors would be hard-pushed to include him if he does exceedingly well for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

 

Recently, ex-Team India spinner Harbhajan Singh predicted that Virat Kohli could recapture his 2016 form in the IPL when he led RCB to the final where they lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad in the final. 

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Virat Kohli smashed 973 runs at an average of over 81 in that edition of the elite T20 tournament, a record which stands to date.

 

“It's important for him to have a season like 2016, because if Virat goes on to score runs, the team will go forward,” Harbhajan Singh observed.

 

In addition to the fans, the reports of Virat Kohli's exclusion from the squad for the forthcoming T20 World Cup left former Pakistan cricketer Mohammad Irfan and England fast bowler Stuart Broad fuming.

 

“This can't be true. Just from a fans point of view of growing the game, the ICC putting games on in America, India Vs Pakistan in New York, Virat is the biggest draw of any player in the world, I’m sure he will be selected,” Stuart Broad posted on X.

 

On the other hand, Mohammad Irfan described the people of people who were thinking about dropping Virat Kohli from India's T20 squad as individuals who have never gone beyond gully cricket.

“I don't have any second thoughts about it, you can't make your team without Virat Kohli because he is a very big batsman. We all saw what he did in the ODI World Cup last year, Virat Kohli won 3-4 matches in the World Cup for India on his own. If Kohli didn't step up on that occasion, India would have lost 3-4 matches including group-stage matches against Australia and New Zealand where India lost early wickets. He finished the match on his own,” Mohammad Irfan told News24.

 

“He won the matches in recent times, it's not fair to raise questions on his place. Those questioning Virat Kohli's place in the T20 World Cup belong in gully cricket,” the former Pakistan paceman added.