Can India Afford To Drop Virat Kohli From T20 World Cup Squad?

Virat Kohli's lack of form has become a big talking point and it is one of the biggest concerns with T20 World Cup set to be played this year in Australia.

It is 2019, and Virat Kohli is scoring runs for fun. He has just gotten a hundred against Bangladesh in India's inaugural day-night Test at the Eden Gardens. Every pundit and fan believes that the right-hander is the best batter currently and if anybody then would say that three years down the line, Kohli's place in the T20 setup would be a big concern and there would be calls to bench him, one might just laugh at the audacity of the thought. Fast forward to 2022, and one seriously needs to ask does Virat in his present form deserves a place in the T20 lineup?

In 2022, Kohli has played four T20Is for India so far, registering scores of 17, 52, 1, and 11. The last two scores came against England in the T20Is. There was a time when one couldn't look beyond Kohli at the number three spot in T20Is. He was the quintessential pivot, who kept the innings together with his ability to rotate the strike and also score fast runs, when needed. But both those abilities are now on the wane, temporarily if not forever.

What makes matters more complicated is that Deepak Hooda has scored runs in the top order and his strike-rate has been top-notch. This is the primary reason fans took to social media to express their disappointment when Hooda was benched for the second T20I as Kohli walked into the lineup.

In the last 10 T20I innings, Kohli's scores have been 77, 1, 80, 57, 9, 2, 17, 52, 1, and 11. Now, if one goes just by numbers, one would say how can Kohli be dropped if he has four fifties in his last 10 games? It is important to note that 6 of these matches were played last year, and there is a vast contrast between then and now.

Kohli might not have hit an international ton since November 2019, but he was still getting fifties and it was just about the maverick batter not being able to reach the three-figure mark. However, now the batter definitely looks out of form, and from the outside, it seems that the right-handed batter is trying to manufacture shots out of nothing, at least in the shortest format.