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Should Virat Kohli continue to bat in the No.3 position, or can the veteran batter open the innings with skipper Rohit Sharma in T20Is? Former South African captain AB de Villiers has shared his views on the buzzing topic in the lead-up to the 3rd T20I against Afghanistan. Former India skipper Kohli retained the No.3 batting position in his first T20I since 2022 on Sunday.
Unavailable for the first T20I against Afghanistan due to personal reasons, Kohli returned to the Indian playing XI for the series decider in Indore. Negating Rohit’s golden duck in the 2nd T20I, Kohli played a quick-fire knock of 29 off 16 balls against the Rashid Khan-less side. Kohli is expected to lead India’s batting charge in the third and final T20I of the Afghanistan series on Wednesday.
ALSO READ: India vs Afghanistan Live Score, 3rd T20I: Virat Kohli six runs away from 12,000 T20 runs
The 3rd T20I will be played in the den of Royal Challengers Bangalore – the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium. Talking about Kohli’s batting position on YouTube, De Villiers opined that Kohli remained the biggest threat for South Africa when he played as the No.3 batter during his playing career. De Villiers then further explained why Kohli should continue to be India’s No.3 batter in the limited-overs format.
‘I have a different opinion’
“I have a different opinion. For the most part of my international career, Virat batting at No. 3 was the biggest threat for us when we played against India. I’ve always felt like he was the glue of the team in the middle-order. No. 3 is not quite middle-order, it is top-order. But he is so good that he often combined with the middle-order, even down to tailenders. It’s just impossible to play against that,” De Villiers said.
De Villiers pointed out that Kohli has played 79 games as the No.3 batter. The former India skipper achieved an average of 55 and a strike rate of 135. The RCB legend added that Kohli’s average is 23 when he faces the first ball as an opener. Kohli has a much-improved batting record when he doesn’t face the first ball of the contest. Kohli can shatter a massive record in the 3rd T20I against Afghanistan. The batting icon is six runs away from completing 12,000 runs in T20s.
‘Always tried to convince Kohli not to’
“Even for Bangalore, when we played at RCB for so many years together, I always tried to convince him (Virat Kohli) not to open the batting. He loves that; I think that’s his preference. He’s played cricket for long enough and maybe he should have the final say. If he wants to open the batting, if I was the coach, I would say, ‘Okay, you know what you’re doing. Go open the batting; you’re the best player, go win us the World Cup,” De Villiers added.
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