(AP Photo)
According to former India cricketer Sanjay Bangar, Virat Kohli is poised to break his streak of low scores in the ongoing T20 World Cup, especially now that the Indian team has relocated from New York to Florida.
In the initial three matches of the group stage, Kohli managed scores of just 1, 4, and 0 respectively at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium. This is a stark contrast to his stellar performance in the previous edition, where he emerged as the highest run-scorer with 296 runs.
Kohli’s struggles have been attributed to the challenging conditions of New York’s unpredictable playing surface, where all of India’s matches have been played thus far. With India gearing up to face Canada in their final group stage clash at Lauderhill in Florida on Saturday, there’s optimism that Kohli will find his form anew.
“Yeah, I agree that Virat Kohli hasn’t scored in the New York leg, but none of the other batsmen have also managed to score a lot of runs on this track. This is a tricky surface and therefore I feel that a big score is just around the corner. He is a player who has excelled at the World Cup events and once the tournament moves to the next phase, those competitive juices will start flowing again and he will start putting up performances for his team,” Bangar told Star Sports.
In the previous match, India secured a convincing seven-wicket victory over co-hosts USA, thus confirming their spot in the Super Eight stage of the tournament.
Reflecting on Suryakumar Yadav’s performance, the veteran cricketer highlighted how Yadav adjusted his usual approach to construct an unbeaten half-century against the USA, scoring 49 balls. He praised Yadav’s composure, emphasizing how he provided stability during the middle overs of the innings. Despite the early loss of a couple of wickets, Yadav anchored the chase impeccably, ensuring India’s pursuit remained on track.
Bangar also commended India’s overall bowling performance, which facilitated their successful chase of a below-par total of 119 against arch-rivals Pakistan.
“Obviously, everybody or all the bowlers want to do their roles and complement each other because if you have a partner at the other end who is bowling or who is putting pressure on the batters, then the team eventually benefits. So I don’t really want to get into who is number one, who is number two. It just augurs well for the Indian team that all the bowlers are coming together and performing,” he said.
