Team India is set to play their final group stage match of ICC T20 World Cup 2024 against Canada in Florida on Saturday (June 15). Senior India batter Virat Kohli, who has been opening with Rohit Sharma, has struggled to score runs throughout the T20 World Cup 2024 tournament.
Virat Kohli has been opening the batting alongside Rohit Sharma, replacing Yashasvi Jaiswal. However, Kohli has struggled in India's last three matches, scoring just 1 run against Ireland, 4 against Pakistan, and being dismissed for a golden duck against USA.
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Notably, India's first three group stage matches were played on New York's slow and turning pitches. Today, the Indian team will play their fourth and final group stage match against Canada at Central Broward Regional Park in Florida. This will be India's first group stage match in the T20 World Cup 2024 outside of New York, and all eyes will be on Virat Kohli's performance.
India has played all its group stage matches so far on the slow and bowler-friendly pitch of Nassau County Stadium in New York. During an interaction on Star Sports, former cricketer Harbhajan Singh expressed his belief that judging batters' performance on this pitch is not fair.
"I will get a lot of shortcomings if I try to find them on that pitch, but I do not want to judge anyone on that pitch because batting was difficult on that pitch. There was a lot of help for the bowlers. However, the one thing I would want to see is consistency," Harbhajan said.
"Virat Kohli didn't score runs there because the conditions were like that. You cannot judge a player in those conditions. He has come here from there, his confidence will be high here. As Navjot Sidhu also said, all batters would have offered Prasada as they got rid of that pitch," the former India spinner added.
Harbhajan said other top-order batters need to fire as well.
"Runs are obviously expected from Virat Kohli here. Along with that, we need to consistently see partnerships which we weren't getting in the first six overs. Then your middle order is set. Suryakumar Yadav and Shivam Dube have scored runs" Harbhajan said.
"We had spoken about Dube not scoring runs. You cannot judge anyone on that pitch. We were getting 110-run matches there and a winner or loser was getting decided in that. The conditions are different here and we hope the batters' form will also change along with the conditions, and it will definitely change," he added.