When India's fixture for the T20 World Cup preparation was revealed, the tally of 11 T20I matches across three series - against Australia (5 at home), South Africa (3 away) and Afghanistan (3 at home), raised concerns if it was enough for the selectors to narrow down on the final 15 for the ICC event in June, especially when some of the veterans almost or entirely skipped the fixtures citing rest following the arduous ODI World Cup or staying fit for the long England Test series.

India head coach Rahul Dravid later clarified saying, "We will have the IPL and everyone will be watching closely to see how some of those guys play and what are the slots we need to fill in the team." More importantly, the T20 World Cup will reportedly begin just five days after the IPL final. Hence, the IPL will not be just a competition between 10 teams for the trophy, but will also be a hunting ground for the Ajit Agarkar-led BCCI selection committee to pick a champion side that could end India's long-standing ICC trophy drought. Who are the certainties? The two players for whom BCCI should already start getting the visas ready are Jasprit Bumrah and Suryakumar Yadav. Then comes, of course, Rohit Sharma, who was confirmed as the captain for the tournament by BCCI secretary Jay Shah earlier last month. Add Yashasvi Jaiswal to the list as well, who has more or less confirmed his berth as Rohit's opening partner. Then comes Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav. And, how can we forget Virat Kohli? So that sums up seven spots, leaving IPL to decide the remaining eight. Virat Kohli, sure? Compared to Rohit, who lost his Mumbai Indians captaincy due to his poor returns with the bat over the last few years, Kohli has had far more consistent IPL seasons. In the last four seasons, he has scored 1851 runs, the fifth-highest among all batters. However, the argument against Kohli in T20s has always been his strike rate, especially against spinners and in middle overs Since IPL 2020, among 20 batters who faced a minimum of 500 deliveries in the middle overs (7-16), Kohli's strike rate of 116.27 is the lowest. Adding to his woes, he takes almost two overs (10.6 balls) to score a boundary during this phase, which is almost double the deliveries taken by Sanju Samson (SR of 152.87; boundary rate of 5.3) and Suryakumar Yadav (SR of 150.59; boundary rate of 4.8), the two best middle-over batters during this period. Kohli's strike rate falls further during this batting phase when up against a spinner - 105.53, the lowest among 18 batters (minimum 300 deliveries), while hitting a boundary every 14.7 overs. This is precisely what the Telegraph report had highlighted a few days back, saying that it could be a reason behind Kohli getting dropped from India's World Cup team, which created quite a stir in world cricket. But there are certain aspects of cricket, that goes beyond numerical logic. There is more at stake for the selectors than merely picking the team, especially when it comes to ICC events. The most competitive spot And that is the position of wicketkeeper-batter. Jitesh Sharma, who has been elevated to the role of vice-captain in Punjab Kings for IPL 2024 season, played six of the 11 T20I matches for India since November 2023, where he impressed with his six-hitting talent and ability to finish off games as well. Ishan Kishan played three other matches, scoring two fifties with a strike rate (144.73) almost similar to that of Jitesh (148.43).