Kohli the T20 batter is playing from his memory but it is now quite evident that his methods are not working quite well enough for him in this short-duration-high impact game. Nor is it allowing the Indian team to make optimal use of its resources.The 20’s or 35’s are coming but not at a strike-rate of 150 (it was 102 plus against Pakistan on Sunday).So can Kohli be dropped from the T20 World Cup squad? Not even in your wildest of imagination even if he isn’t scoring runs at a breakneck pace.But can Kohli continue playing for India in this format post the T20 World Cup in Australia? Well, even if the people, who are in decision making positions know the answer, they won’t spell it out.
That is a question that has been doing rounds of the corridors of Indian cricket since the ‘Desert Debacle’ last year when India made a pre-mature exit from the T20 World Cup .That was Kohli’s last tournament as India’s T20 captain and he had then relinquished captaincy of one format thinking that it would help him ease his workload and free him from burdens of leading the side across all formats.One year down the line, even if Kohli doesn’t have any regrets, the move didn’t work out as it he would have envisaged and subsequently was removed from ODI leadership and the intelligent man read the signs and surrendered his ‘virtual arm-band’ in a format where his numbers were phenomenal.While Kohli recently opened up about his recent struggles with mental health issues in a refreshingly candid interview with ‘Star Sports’, a case of burn-out can’t be ruled out.464 international matches by the age of 33 is huge and add 15 seasons of high pressure Indian Premier League seasons, where he has not only been his franchise’s (IPL) batting mainstay but also its biggest brand.He only has that much band-width and he only admitted that there was a phase when he wasn’t enjoying the game.In five T20Is in 2022, his scores are 17, 52, 1, 11 and 35.If we leave aside the scores low scores, his 17 came off 13 balls, he took 41 deliveries for his 52 and 34 for his 35.