Indian Cricket’s “Beau Geste” To Rohit Sharma And Virat Kohli

Indian cricket, nay the BCCI’s selection committee, will do a Beau Geste (beautiful gesture) to both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli by picking them for the ICC Men’s World Twenty20 in the USA and Caribbean. Perhaps Ravindra Jadeja, too.  While the two batters are the top two run-getters in the Twenty20 format in the world, their appearance for India since India’s last World Twenty20 match against England in Adelaide on November 10, 2022, has been a little something; after a gap of 14 months, Sharma played the three-match series against Afghanistan (0,0, 121), and Kohli played two against Afghanistan (29,0). Jadeja has played in two matches since August 2022, missing many because of injury. With Hardik Pandya going down in the home 50-over World Cup last year, the selectors returned to the old war horses Sharma and Kohli. With Hardik being made the India Twenty20 captain in January 2022, Sharma and Kohli did not fit into the Twenty20 scheme of things. But the ankle-related injury to Hardik in the World Cup match against Bangladesh in Pune paved the way for Sharma and Kohli’s recall. After the semi-final exit in 2022, India has played 28 Twenty20 internationals and the leading batters have been Suryakumar Yadav (857 runs),  Yashasvi Jaiswal (502), Ruturaj Gaikwad (365), Rinku Singh (356), Shubman Gill (339), Tilak Varma (336), Ishan Kishan (253) and Hardik (231). The leading wicket-takers have been Arshdeep Singh (33 wickets), Ravi Bishnoi (20), Axar Patel (15), Kuldeep Yadav (15), Mukesh Kumar (12), Hardik and Yuzvendra Chahal (11 each). In a few days, the India squad will be announced for the World Twenty20, and we will know whether performance in the IPL counts!