Does India Require Virat Kohli as ‘Anchor’ for T20 World Cup 2024?

Plenty of players will be hoping to make the cut for India’s 15-member squad for the 2024 T20 World Cup in West Indies and USA. With the ongoing IPL season seen as auditions for the marquee ICC event, India’s think tank will be carefully analyzing player performances with some spots in the squad still up for grabs. India’s batting though will still revolve around Virat Kohli, who is wearing the Orange Cap after smashing 316 runs in five innings at an average of 105.33 and a strike rate of 146.30 this season. The right-hander has hit three 50-plus scores in IPL 2024, including the highest score of an unbeaten 113 for Royal Challengers Bengaluru against Rajasthan Royals.

However, it will be interesting to see how Kohli will be utilized by the Men in Blue in the T20 World Cup. While he has donned the role of aggressor as an opener for RCB this season, Kohli has also shown that he’s still capable of anchoring an innings if the situation demands him to. His unbeaten 113 against Rajasthan and 83 not out against Kolkata Knight Riders are a testament to that. In T20 World Cups, he has scored 1,141 runs in 25 innings at an outstanding average of 81.50 with a strike rate over 130.

Apart from his astonishing numbers, he was named the Player of the Tournament consecutively in the 2014 and 2016 editions of the T20 World Cups. His match-winning knocks in crucial outings – 72* vs South Africa (2014), 82* vs Australia (2016), and the iconic 82* vs Pakistan (2022) – are unmatched and remain special for Indian fans. Interestingly, all these knocks came with Kohli holding up one end, while wickets fell at the other. The change in soil composition and moisture levels has affected the pace and bounce of the pitches in the West Indies.

These days, the venues in the Caribbean tend to be slow tracks which are quite similar to the ones in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and a few other venues in the subcontinent. Kohli has been ruthless in slow pitches where the ball doesn’t get pace from the pitch which makes him a dangerman to any side. He has smashed 37 fifties along with a jaw-dropping 122* against Afghanistan in Asia Cup 2022. His strike rate of 138.15 may have room for improvement, but he’s already shown that he can go hard at bowlers from the start should he deem it necessary.

In 2023, India played 20 T20Is apart from the three Asian Games matches in China. Kohli didn’t feature in any of them and batters like Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, and Shreyas Iyer were given the nod over him. After a long spell on the sidelines following the T20 WC 2022, Kohli played his first T20 international match in February 2024 against Afghanistan. He scored only 29 runs in the two-match series but at a strike rate of 170.58.

Considering that the T20 dynamics have changed drastically over the years, batters have become more aggressive from the outset these days. IPL 2024, in fact, has witnessed two record-breaking team scores this year – SRH’s 277 vs MI and KKR’s 272 vs DC. His presence in the middle order as an anchor will provide balance alongside the swashbuckling and aggressive styles of Suryakumar Yadav, Rinku Singh, Rohit Sharma, and Shivam Dube. India has given the world many great cricketers but Virat Kohli finds himself in a league of his own in the modern era.

With opening batting candidates like Rohit Sharma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Shubman Gill all in the fray for a T20 World Cup spot, making Kohli the anchor of the team makes perfect sense given his ability to play according to match situations as well as his extensive experience in the high stakes pressure situations which are synonymous with ICC events.