‘Virat Kohli can score 40-ball 100’: Sourav Ganguly packs a punch, picks Rohit Sharma’s opening partner for World Cup

With Virat Kohli busy serving timely reminders to critics about his T20 exploits in the Indian Premier League season 2024, former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly has opted to throw his weight behind the current Orange Cap holder of the cash-rich league.

The former Royal Challengers Bengaluru skipper has been leading the batting charge of Faf du Plessis and Co. in the T20 World Cup year.

Making adjustments to his game while playing the shortest format of the game, Kohli’s strike rate has come under scrutiny in the league stage of the IPL. Kohli smashed a 67-ball century against Rajasthan Royals, although RCB bowlers were outplayed by a ton-up Jos Buttler, who notched up a match-winning 100 off 58 balls in the high-scoring IPL encounter.

Since there is extra focus on the IPL 2024 as the T20 league will end days before the start of the World Cup, Ganguly pointed out that Rohit Sharma’s Team India needs to adopt a fearless approach at the grandest stage. The Delhi Capitals (DC) Director of Cricket also decided to shut down Kohli’s critics by claiming that the RCB skipper could smash a century for India in 40 balls.

‘MS Dhoni still hits sixes’

“The most important thing for India is to play without fear. There is no hard and fast rule about age and playing youngsters in T20Is, James Anderson still plays Tests and bowls 30 overs in Tests, MS Dhoni still hits sixes and both are in their 40s. Six-hitting is important. Virat has got the capability to hit a 40-ball century. It is about playing fearlessly and freely in T20Is,” Ganguly told reporters at a media event in Delhi.

Kohli to open with Rohit?

Ganguly also picked Kohli to team up with Rohit as his opening partner at the T20 World Cup. Kohli and Rohit recently returned to India’s T20 squad for the Afghanistan series. Rohit is already confirmed to lead India in the 2024 edition of the ICC World Cup. Kohli finished the previous T20 World Cup as leading run-scorer with 296 runs from six innings.

‘Team India needs to go out and hit’

“India needs to go out and hit. Rohit, Virat, Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya etc. All of them are exceptional talents and their six-hitting abilities are tremendous. There needs to be a balance of experience and youth. This is the case with great teams. You have to look at all the performances (in IPL and international both). The experienced players of India are tremendous because of the performances they have put up over the years,” Ganguly added.