“Sachin Tendulkar batted at No. 4”: Virender Sehwag’s sensational T20 World Cup message for Virat

Indian cricket team batsman Virat Kohli has emerged as an unlikely option to open the innings along with Rohit Sharma amid his good form in IPL 2024. Kohli, who scored another half-century for Royal Challengers Bengaluru during the match against the Gujarat Titans on Sunday, is currently the competition’s leading run-scorer and many experts, including former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly, have backed him to open the innings in the 2024 T20 World Cup. However, legendary Indian batsman Virender Sehwag believes that Virat should continue to bat at No. 3 and even mentioned Sachin Tendulkar’s decision to demote himself to No. 4 during the 2007 World Cup to make his point.

“If I were on that team, I wouldn’t tell him to open. I will play him at 3. Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal will open, and Kohli will continue batting at No. 3. The midfield approach is his headache, he knows that if there is an early dismissal he can take care of the powerplays. If the wicket falls late, it is the responsibility of the captain and coach to tell him to keep the momentum intact. A player has to do that,” Sehwag said in Cricbuzz.

“Sachin Tendulkar also left his opening role to bat at number four and carried the momentum in that role. He batted fourth in the 2007 World Cup. Even he didn’t like batting in the middle order but he had to do it for the team. If your team has two good openers and you are asked to bat at 3, you will have to do so. You have to maintain the momentum that the openers have established. I don’t think Virat Kohli will be too bothered.”

Meanwhile, Kohli lashed out at his critics following his team’s victory over GT in IPL 2024.

“Not really, all the people who talk about strike rates and me not playing well are the ones who talk about those things. For me it’s about winning games for the team and there’s a reason why you’ve done that for 15 years, you’ve done it day in and day out, you’ve won games for your teams, I’m not sure if you haven’t been in that situation, sitting and talk about the game from the beginning. For me, people can talk about their assumptions day in and day out, but those who do it day in and day out know what’s going on and it’s a kind of muscle memory for me now,” Kohli said.