India superstar Virat Kohli has had a tremendous time with the bat in the latter half of 2022. He returned to form in the shortest format of the game from the Asia Cup and continued his excellency with the bat in the T20 World Cup as well.
Kohli was the leading run-getter in the global showpiece event, scoring 296 runs in just six matches. He smashed half-centuries on four occasions, including the most memorable match-winning knock against arch-rivals Pakistan.
But ever since the 2022 T20 World Cup, the former India skipper hasn’t featured for India in the T20I games. Notably, Team India have played two T20I bilateral series after the mega event, but Kohli was not seen in action in any of those matches.
No wonder Kohli’s continued absence from the T20I side has led to question marks on his future in the format. The question was again raised at the pre-match press conference ahead of India’s third ODI against New Zealand to India head coach Rahul Dravid.
However, Dravid interrupted the reporter mid-way and came up with a blunt response about Kohli’s future with Team India in T20Is.
“Till last year, Virat’s position in the T20 team was questioned,” said the reporter before Dravid intervened and countered it with an epic reply, “Not by us. Not at all, never by us.”
The India coach then explained the reason behind the absence of Kohli as well as the current skipper Rohit Sharma in the shortest formats.
“There’s a certain priority we need to give to certain white-ball tournaments at particular stages of time. With the amount of cricket we are playing – the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and the World Test Championship – there are certain white-ball tournaments that we have to prioritise, the priority after the T20 World Cup has been these six (ODI) games,” added Dravid.
