Opinion : Virat’s ‘greed’ that falls heavily on the team
The date of January 15 is a bit strange for Virat Kohli. On this date, the ICC selected Virat Kohli as the captain of their ODI and Test team at its annual awards. On this date, questions are being raised on his captaincy. The questions are actually raising more than Virat Kohli’s captaincy on his greed due to which the balance of Team India is disturbed. This greed is of another batsman in the lower middle order. Virat Kohli also wants a player who ‘contributes with the bat’ at number 8 in the team’s batting order. In this greed, Virat sits on such experiments which prove to be harmful for the team. The same happened in Mumbai ODI. This is more surprising because the team which has batsmen like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul, do they really need another batsman at number 8? Even if you answer no to this question, Virat Kohli’s answer is yes because his thinking in choosing the team’s playing 11 looks similar.
Mistake of putting Navdeep Saini out
In the first ODI against Australia on Tuesday, he gave place to Shardul Thakur in the playing 11. There is nothing wrong in giving place to Shardul Thakur but putting Navdeep Saini out and feeding him in Playing 11 reflects Virat Kohli’s thinking. In fact, in the recent T20 series against Sri Lanka, Shardul Thakur scored 22 runs in just 8 balls in the last T20 match. Apart from this, he also took 2 wickets. He was voted man of the match in that match. Seeing this performance of his, Virat Kohli got caught in greed. In the first match against Australia, he put out the Man of the Series i.e. Navdeep Saini of the previous series. Now understand the need of Navdeep Saini in the match. Navdeep Saini bowls at a speed of 150 kilometers per hour. He bowled brilliantly in the T20 series. Jasprit Bumrah is working hard to find his rhythm after his return to the team. He was also seen doing ‘Struggle’ in the T20 series. In such a situation, the responsibility of bowling was solely on Mohammed Shami. This ‘off-day’ was the reason for the bowlers behind the big defeat of 10 wickets in the first ODI against Australia. If Navdeep Saini was in Playing 11 in place of Shardul Thakur, it is possible that Indian bowling would have seen more sharpening. Virat Kohli is also a little bit of this greed behind breaking the pair of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal. According to Virat, the great advantage of keeping Ravindra Jadeja in the playing 11 is that he can also bat.
What is Virat’s compulsion behind this greed
Virat has great compulsions behind this greed. Actually, Virat Kohli has not been getting support from the middle order for a long time. Dhoni has been out of the team since the World Cup. Rishabh Pant, who came in his place, has not been able to prove himself yet. No other player has got as many opportunities as he has got in recent times. In the 16 ODIs played so far, he has been able to score at an average of only 26.71. Virat Kohli’s strategy regarding Sanju Samson is not clear. Apart from Rishabh Pant, whoever has got an opportunity in the middle order, Shreyas Iyer, Kedar Jadhav or Manish Pandey, he has not been a consultant. Virat is already in this preparation that even lower-order batsmen should contribute something. But instead of adopting this strategy for a long time, it would be better to remove middle order problems. Otherwise, greed is a bad thing.
