Kohli has made a strong return to the Indian playing XI for the series decider in Indore. There are discussions about whether he should continue to bat at the No.3 position or open the innings with captain Rohit Sharma in T20Is. Former South African captain AB de Villiers shared his thoughts on this ahead of the 3rd T20I against Afghanistan. In his first T20I since 2022, Kohli retained the No.3 batting position on Sunday after being unavailable for the first T20I due to personal reasons. Despite Rohit’s early dismissal in the 2nd T20I, Kohli played a blistering knock of 29 runs off 16 balls against the Rashid Khan-less side.
The 3rd T20I will take place at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, the Royal Challengers Bangalore’s home ground. De Villiers believes that Kohli should continue to be India’s No.3 batsman in the limited-overs format as he has an impressive track record playing at that position, with an average of 55 and a remarkable strike rate of 135. Additionally, the RCB legend pointed out that Kohli’s average drops to 23 when he faces the first ball as an opener. However, Kohli’s batting performance significantly improves when he doesn’t face the first ball of the contest.
Excitingly, Kohli has the opportunity to break a monumental record in the upcoming 3rd T20I against Afghanistan, as he is just six runs away from reaching the remarkable milestone of 12,000 runs in T20s. De Villiers also mentioned that he always tried to convince Kohli not to open the batting when they played together at RCB, but ultimately believes that Kohli should have the final say in the matter.