Indian skipper Virat Kohli scored an unbeaten 80 as India won the fifth and final T20I against England at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Saturday. India thus completed a 3-2 series win with this being their eighth straight T20I series win and seventh under Kohli. With him, Rohit Sharma scored a free-flowing 64 as the duo added 94 for the first wicket. This was the first time Kohli and Rohit opened together in T20I cricket. The impact was instantly visible as it gave more balance to the Indian batting line-up and the middle order was able to cash in on a good start.
After the match, in the post-match presentation, Virat Kohli revealed his batting position in the IPL 2021 for Royal Challengers Bangalore. He said that he will continue to open in the IPL and bank on facing maximum deliveries and scoring runs for the team. On his part, Kohli confirmed that he would ‘like’ to continue opening the innings with Rohit in T20Is, with India having found a strong middle-order core.
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I am Going To Open In The IPL As Well: Virat Kohli
“I am going to open in the IPL as well. Have batted in different positions in the past. But I feel we have a solid middle-order now. Will definitely like to partner Rohit at the top.”
Kohli also was chosen as the Man of the Series for his performance in the series. He ended with 231 runs in the series and in the process, surpassed KL Rahul’s record of most runs in a single T20I series. Rahul scored 224 runs against New Zealand in the five-match T20I series last year. Before Saturday, Kohli had batted as an opener in T20Is only in 7 matches, managing 198 runs.
Virat Kohli – 231 runs in 5-match series against England in 2021
KL Rahul – 224 runs in 5-match series against New Zealand in 2020
Colin Munro – 223 in 3-match series against West Indies in 2018
Meanwhile, Royal Challengers Bangalore will play the IPL 2021 opener against Mumbai Indians. As far as their schedule is concerned they will be playing their matches in Chennai, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Kolkata.
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