Should Rohit, Virat play T20 World Cup?

IT'S THE YEAR the country picks its leader and the men to take the country forward, to embrace incumbency or winds of change; it is also the year the world of Indian sports has to make tough and definite decisions in its quest for medals and trophies, but without the choice of a ballot.

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The big question It's not about sentiments, to give Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli potentially one last shot at winning the T20 World Cup. But there is no reason to look beyond them.

Kohli was the tournament's highest run-getter and played one of the all-time great T20 knocks by an Indian batsman.

He hasn't played another T20I since India's semifinal exit in the 2022 World Cup, but enjoyed a prosperous IPL.

The tally of 639 runs is his second-best run-haul ever, so is the strike rate that is a nudge below 140. If any, he has only reinvigorated his T20 game and looks in no mood to slow down.

Rohit's recent T20I outings have not been quite eyecatching. but the freedom he displayed in the ODI World Cup is a reliable indicator of his mindset and method. A cricketer like him should not be valued merely through the prism of numbers in a particular format, but his recent form, even if it be in other formats. Little doubt that Rohit was India's tempo-setter in the 50-over World Cup, the pin-up boy of their gung-ho approach. Though a spate of openers have performed in recent T20Is-Sai Sudharsan the most promising of them-Rohit towers above them all with his body of work, as it is with Kohli.

Picking both risks being labelled conservative. But has not conservatism bore fruits in the T20 World Cup? A perfect case study is Australia's squad that won the 2021 World Cup in UAE. It was a supposedly old and worn-out group, but when the big moments came, their wisdom and experience made a telling difference.