Why Virat Kohli should do a David Warner and open the batting for India in T20Is

It’s turning out to be that kind of month for former India cricketer Bishen Singh Bedi. First, the Supreme Court did to the Board of Control for Cricket in India what he’s been itching to do to them for years; then, his protégé, Parvez Rasool, is picked for India’s Twenty20 squad against England. What could possibly happen next for the straight shooting Bedi?

If Bedi has a wish list, chances are, Virat Kohli opening with KL Rahul is right up there. He will look you in the eye and tell you, “It’s obvious…Shikhar Dhawan isn’t making runs, why pick him? Look at his IPL numbers…they’re not that great…he was the mere support cast for Warner… and had to do very little…yes…Warner bhai sahib was doing everything, if you saw it, you’d know.”

When informed that Dhawan is not in the T20 squad, Bedi will shrug with that knowing smile and say, “I rest my case.”

For Bedi’s and your benefit, India’s T20I squad is: Virat Kohli (captain), KL Rahul, Mandeep Singh, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Manish Pandey, Amit Mishra, Parvez Rasool, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashish Mehra.

Kohli on top

Kohli bats at four in Tests and comes in at three in One-Day Internationals. In the IPL’s last edition, he opened the batting for Royal Challengers Bangalore with KL Rahul. All those record-breaking runs in the IPL happened precisely then – 16 matches, 973 runs, four centuries, four not outs, an average of 81, a strike rate of 152. Compare that with his previous IPL seasons when he didn’t open – no centuries, strike rate hovering in the 120s and 130s, and a batting average ranging in the 20s-40s.

At least in T20Is, it’s time for Kohli to do a David Warner for India – give himself the best chance to play all the overs and check in with a century. There might be the temptation to have his RCB mates KL Rahul and Mandeep Singh open, or even Manish Pandey for that matter, but none of the players have form or the benefit of time spent at the crease. Rahul, however, will have the benefit of opening with Kohli in IPL ’16. Better still, they gel in the middle, with Rahul feeding on Kohli’s energy and vice versa.

Or will India and Kohli have the audacity to open with Rishabh Pant – the champ from the Under-19 World Cup? Still 19, Pant strikes at over a 100 in first-class cricket, and at 130 in T20s. It’s still early days, but whether Pant opens or not, he should definitely be part of the playing XI. But will he?

Likely Playing XI for first T20I:

Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Manish Pandey, MS Dhoni, Hardik Pandya, Amit Mishra, Parvez Rasool, Jasprit Bumrah, Ashish Nehra.

Slow movers

Going by his current fielding form, Yuvraj is one of India’s slower movers on the field. How long those imperious pulls between long on and square leg overshadow his fielding remains to be seen. Gone are the days when a Yuvraj misfield would be met by Laxman Sivaramakrisnan’s “Yuvraj Singh is one of India’s better fielders”. Now, there’s just a polite silence for a senior pro.

Accommodating Nehra, Yuvraj and Mishra in the same T20 team, though, might be a bridge too far – one that India will cross with much trepidation when they come to it. Stranger things have happened and we could be in for a new-look, old-look Indian side – one that’s seeped in nostalgia, semi-blind to the demands of the format.

Ideally, starting now, Manish Pandey and Rishabh Pant should be given more chances in the shortest version. Of the three formats, this is the version India plays the least games in. The World T20 may appear a long way away, with two IPLs before it, but now is a good time to further differentiate between the skill sets for an ODI and a T20I game.

While Bedi will say that Sir Garfield Sobers is an instant pick in all three formats, he’ll also say, “They don’t make players like Sobers today, because nobody wants to be sober today. Hahaha! How did you like the pun?”