Virat Kohli is currently the Orange Cap holder at IPL 2024 with 316 runs including one hundred and two fifties.

New Delhi: England cricketer Dawid Malan opined India have the potential to excel at the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024 in the USA and West Indies if the Board makes right choices. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has set the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) as a selection platform for the 15-member squad for the mega extravaganza that starts on June 1. He also said that Virat Kohli should make the final team.

While most of the spots in the 15-member squad are already locked there are certain spots that are going to give headaches to the selectors. To add more misery to the selectors, several uncapped and out-of-contention Indian names like Mayank Yadav, Shashank Singh, Ashutosh Sharma and Yuzvendra Chahal have performed well in IPL 2024 so far.

Dawid stated that if India make the right choices they can field a very strong team in the upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. “With the ongoing IPL, we are seeing the rise of several new Indian players making a mark and if the board makes the right choices there is enough and more talent to help India excel at the upcoming T20 World Cup,” Malan said on the back of his partnership with Linebat News.

The 36-year-old, who had played for Punjab Kings in the IPL also believed Virat Kohli is a strong contender to be in the flight to USA and West Indies. The former RCB captain, who didn’t play any T20Is for India in 2023, returned to the shortest format against Afghanistan earlier in the year in January.

However, he took a two-month paternity leave to be beside his family as his wife Anushka Sharma gave birth to their second child in February. He returned to cricket in IPL 2024 and has been in brilliant form so far. The right-hander is currently the Orange Cap holder with 316 runs from five games, including a hundred and two fifties.

“While Virat has been away from T20 cricket, his performances certainly show that he makes a strong contender for making the final team,” he added. The deadline to submit the 15-member squads for all the teams at the T20 World Cup 2024 is May 1. In the 2022 T20 World Cup, India exited the tournament in the semifinal after losing to England by 10 wickets. England were the eventual winners.