Team India captain Rohit Sharma and star batsman Virat Kohli practiced intensively in the nets in Barbados on Tuesday, preparing for the start of their Super 8 phase in the T20 World Cup. The Men in Blue will play against Afghanistan in a thrilling match on Thursday, June 20.
Anticipating a difficult challenge from Afghanistan‘s quality spinners, both Rohit and Kohli focused on improving their sweeps and reverse-sweeps.
In the video posted by Star Sports, Rohit and Kohli can be seen batting in the nearby nets, facing Kuldeep Yadav and Yuvvendra Chahal as they coordinate against the Afghan spinners. Apart from practicing sweeps and reverse-sweep, Kohli was also seen playing the slog-sweep, a shot he has been using frequently in IPL 2024 with great success
You can watch the video here:
https://twitter.com/StarSportsIndia/status/1803316411332436326
The match against Afghanistan will be India’s first of the tournament in the West Indies, and the change in conditions might lead to alterations in their lineup. Both Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal could be considered for selection, as India may opt to play with three spinners.
Cricket expert supports the opening partnership of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli
In the current T20 World Cup that Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli opened for India, their partnership totaled just 22, 12, 1 runs in those innings despite this much cricket including former India opener Waseem Jaffer -Experts take it believe that the pair will perform well at essentially different stages of the tournament.
In a recent video on his YouTube channel, Jaffer explained that the conditions in New York significantly impacted Rohit and Kohli’s performance. Nonetheless, he still believes Kohli can be the tournament’s top run-scorer.
“Rohit and Virat have been playing on the tough New York pitch so they aren’t quite among the top run-scorers. But do not write off Virat Kohli. As the tournament will get to its business end, he will show his true colors and he will show his greatness. I had picked Virat Kohli as the highest run-scorer and I will stick to him,” said Jaffer.
India will compete against Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Australia in their Super 8 group. The top two teams from this group will advance to the semifinals.
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