4. Captain Kohli’s Conversion Rate
For a man whose fifty to hundred conversion rate of 43%, the third best in the history of ODI cricket (only players with 2000+ runs considered here), not getting a single hundred despite going past fifty on five consecutive occasions at this World Cup must be a tad worrisome.
After all, this is the benchmark the Indian captain has set for himself. It is true that because Rohit Sharma is batting deep into the Indian innings and with KL Rahul also having struck good form, Kohli hasn’t had too many overs to bat and work his way through to a hundred.
Kohli himself though doesn’t appear to be too ruffled by this situation. Responding to Ian Bishop”s question whether he is at all worried about his inability to convert his fifties into hundreds in the tournament at the toss before the Bangladesh game, an upbeat Kohli said, “I don”t need to sit down and assess how to convert those (the fifties into hundreds), I have done that a lot of times in the past.
I”m really enjoying the way I”m batting at the moment. It”s just about contributing to the team.” In the pre-match press conference before India”s semi-final tie against New Zealand, Kohli made clear that his role at this World Cup is primarily to hold up one end and ensure that the scoreboard keeps ticking along; personal milestones, as he has always maintained, become secondary to the team”s cause.
But in case one of the openers falls early in the knockouts, the onus will be on Kohli to steady the Indian ship and maybe give himself a chance to get to that elusive hundred in the process.
