With Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma firmly established as the opening pair, India experimented with the in-form K L Rahul moving up the order to number three in the T20I series. Rahul had success in the role, including a sparkling hundred in the opening game at Manchester and the big question now is if he should keep that spot in the upcoming ODIs too.
Legendary India skipper Sourav Ganguly is among those who think he should, and has advocated that Virat Kohli drops down a spot to bat at number four. Especially as no other middle-order batsman has made the spot his own in ODIs of late.
“If you look at this T20I series, I think they have formed the proper batting line-up,” Ganguly said. “With Rahul at number three, and Virat Kohli batting at number four, I think the problem has been sorted out. And I firmly believe it is also the right thing to do in the ODI format as well."
Kohli does of course have an outstanding record at number three. In 148 innings at one down in the order, Kohli has smashed 7,495 runs at an astonishing average of 61.43. He has also scored 28 out of his 35 ODI tons while batting at this position.
However, Kohli's record while batting at number four isn't bad either. In the 37 innings that he has batted at this position, Kohli has scored 1,744 runs at an average of 58.1. Kohli has also scored 7 centuries while batting at his position.
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Virat Kohli is India's Best Bet at No.4: Sourav Ganguly
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