Former Australian cricketer Matthew Hayden has come up with an interesting statement during the argument about who, between Virat Kohli and Yashasvi Jaiswal, should open for India with Rohit Sharma in the 2024 T20 World Cup. Putting Kohli with Jaiswal at the top of the order, he ignored the Indian skipper in his customary position and adhered to a left-right combination. Reiterating his earlier statement, Hayden added a new wrinkle by stating that either Kohli starts for India's playing XI or he is left off the roster.
The prospect of India starting with Rohit and the former captain was spurred by Kohli's great IPL 2024 campaign. The 35-year-old, who was playing for Royal Challengers Bengaluru, crushed 741 runs in 15 innings to claim the Orange Cap.
Before India's opening Twenty20 World Cup encounter against Ireland on Wednesday at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York, Hayden discussed his probable starting line-up with ESPNCricinfo. The Australian great emphasized that either Kohli opens for India or he has no place in his squad, sticking to a left-right combination at the top of the batting order.
“You have to have a left-right combination. You can't have five right-handers in a row. Australia would say hello to Zampa. Kohli has to open or he does not play in my team. He is in absolute red-hot form,” he said.
Hayden opined that Rohit ranked fourth in the India XI, would be the most suitable captain to spearhead the Indian attack from the middle-order position when questioned why the same reasoning does not hold for him.
“Rohit is a versatile player and does not shy away from batting away in that middle order. He has a successful record in T20I cricket batting at No. 4 and can lead the batting group from the early middle order,” he added.
For India, Rohit had 151 appearances and amassed 3974 runs. He batted outside his typical opening position in 27 of those games, scoring 481 runs with five fifty-score innings. Eight of those happened for India at No. 4, the last of which occurred in 2022. They hammered 188 runs at a 122.87 strike rate, including two fifties. He batted there for 2565 runs at a strike rate of 130 with 20 fifties in 91 IPL innings, the latest of which was in 2018.