CNN Central News & Network-ITDC India Epress / ITDC News Bhopal: The upcoming few days in Indian cricket circles will be dominated by never-ending debates over the best possible combination for the T20 World Cup squad. As of now, officially, there’s only one sure-shot selection – Rohit Sharma whose participation as captain was confirmed by BCCI secretary Jay Shah earlier this year.
While the selection of few other stars looks a mere formality, the Indian selectors will have to brainstorm since there are a host of players who have been consistently performing in the format at the international level and also in the ongoing IPL 2024.
Former India allrounder and T20 World Cup winner Irfan Pathan has suggested his top-three batters for the marquee event that the selection panel led by Ajit Agarkar should be putting their faith on.
While Rohit is an automatic choice, Pathan feels the young Yashasvi Jaiswal will be an ideal choice to partner the veteran star at the top.
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And despite the chatter over Kohli being played as an opener, Pathan feels that the batting superstar’s ideal position is at no.3.
Pathan also shut down talks over Kohli’s strike-rate, drawing comparisons with the legendary Chris Gayle who international strike-rate (137.50) is nearly equal to that of the former Indian captain (138.15).
“Now that World Cup is nearing. My top 3 for team India. 1) Rohit Sharma (in form as well as captain) 2) Yashasvi Jaiswal (been saying that he should be there even before his 100 purely cos he was performing well for team India before the ipl) 3) Virat Kohli. (Shouldn’t be any question regarding his place or strike rate. His strike rate at the T20I is 138 + Better than Chris Gayle+ 51 avg. N his ipl strike rate this season is 150),” Pathan posted on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Currently, Kohli is the leading run-getter of IPL 2024 having scored 379 runs at a strike-rate of 150.40. Rohit Sharma is fourth on the list with 303 runs at a strike-rate of 162.90.
On the other hand, Jaiswal has also returned to form with a sparkling century on Monday night and has taken his tally to 225 runs from eight innings.