Virat Kohli came out to bat as an opener for India against Afghanistan during an Asia Cup T20 match on Thursday (September 8) in Dubai, and in his first match as a top-order batter for India in almost 18 months, the 33-year-old scored a century. It was his first-ever T20I hundred for India in the shortest format of the game. The former Indian skipper remained unbeaten on 122 runs from 61 balls. He took 53 balls to reach the three-figure mark and completed his hundred with a six on the second ball of the 19th over.
Overall, during his stay at the crease, the right-handed batter hammered 12 fours and 6 sixes. His spectacular show against the Afghans has raised calls for utilising him as an opener in the shortest format of the game, especially when KL Rahul has failed to deliver good results on a consistent basis. Virat has played as an opener nine times in T20Is, in which he has scored 400 runs.
But despite all this, his Test teammate Cheteshwar Pujara feels that Virat shouldn’t open the innings alongside skipper Rohit Sharma in the upcoming T20 World Cup in Australia. According to Pujara, Rohit and Rahul make a good pair and should only play in the T20 mega event, with Virat batting at number three.
Speaking on the ESPNCricinfo show, the 34-year-old said, “I don’t think so. I think he is better off at No. 3. He has proved that, and KL and Rohit, I think they make a good opening pair, so I think Virat should continue batting at No. 3 and that he has scored a lot of runs at No. 3, so there’s no question about that.”
Virat has had a very successful career as an opening batter for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League matches, but for India he has played as a number three batter on most occasions. Out of the total 104 matches, on 67 occasions, Virat came out to bat at number three and has scored 2623 runs at an average of 54.64.
