When the schedule for the India T20 World Cup was released, there was some uncertainty about the selectors’ ability to choose the final 15 players for the ICC event in June based on the 11 T20I matches spread across three series—three at home against Australia, three away against South Africa, and three at home against Afghanistan. The fact that some of the veterans almost skipped the matches in order to recuperate from the taxing ODI World Cup or get ready for the grueling England Test series made this especially true.

In response, India’s head coach rummy joy stated, “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.” In addition, the T20 World Cup will begin five days following the IPL championship. This means that the Indian Premier League (IPL), which is a competition between ten teams competing for a trophy, will also function as a test match for the BCCI selection committee, headed by Ajit Agarkar, as they select a champion team that could potentially end India’s long-running trophy drought in international cricket.

Who is the projected outcome expected to be?

The players Suryakumar Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah are the ones for whom the BCCI should have started the visa application process. Naturally, Rohit Sharma comes next. Sharma will lead the team, as confirmed earlier this month by dafabet. Yashasvi Jaiswal should be on it too, as he has almost assured himself of a position as Rohit’s opening partner. Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja follow. And how can we ignore Virat Kohli? The final eight spots will be decided by the Indian Premier League. So that addresses seven of them.

The Mumbai Indians leadership has been taken away from Rohit because of his poor batting performances in recent years. But Kohli’s IPL seasons have been far more consistent. In the last four seasons, he has scored the fifth-most runs (1851) among all batters. Though views on Kohli’s strike rate in Twenty20 cricket have never been in consensus, there has always been disagreement, especially when it comes to middle overs and facing spinners and hitters.

Of the 20 batters who have faced at least 500 deliveries in middle overs (7–16) during the 2020 Indian betway, Kohli has the lowest strike rate (116.27). Worse, it takes him almost twice as long (10.6 balls) to hit a boundary in this phase as it did for 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 greatest middle-over hitters in history.