'Virat Kohli Would Definitely be in My T20I Team on Current Form': Sunil Gavaskar

Legendary India batter Sunil Gavaskar suggested that Virat Kohli will definitely make it to his T20I team considering his current form in shortest format of the game. Kohli was imperious in IPL 2023 and scored 639 runs in 14 matches including two centuries. The batting maestro tried his best to take Royal Challengers Bangalore to the playoffs but a couple of close matches went against their favour. While Kohli’s form has once again raised a question that whether he should return to India’s T20I set-up or not. The 34-year-old last played a T20I for India in the 2022 T20 WC semifinal against England. Kohli was the leading run-getter of the tournament.

Talking about Kohli’s place in next year’s T20 WC, Gavaskar suggested that it will depend upon his form in IPL 2024.

“The next T20 World Cup will be played in 2024. There will be another IPL before that in March-April. Kohli’s form should be observed at that point. There is no point talking about it now,” Gavaskar told Sports Tak.

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The batting great stated Kohli should definitely get into a T20I side if India are playing the shortest format in June this year.

“If we are talking about an upcoming T20 international, say India are playing a match in June, then he definitely fits into the team, the kind of form that he has shown.

“But, speaking about the 2024 World Cup, which will be held in West Indies and America, the form of players needs to be observed in the IPL before that and then we can talk about selection for the World Cup squad.”

Talking further about Kohli’s recent form in IPL, Gavaskar was all praise for the RCB batter for smashing two back-to-back centuries in a format where 50 looks like a milestone.

“Virat would definitely be in my T20I team on current form for India’s upcoming matches in the format. He has scored two hundreds [in IPL 2023]. Hitting two hundreds in T20 cricket, even scoring 50 is difficult.

“This great batter has notched up two hundreds. If I was a selector and India were playing a T20 in June this year, I would, without doubt, pick him in the squad.”