SA vs IND 2023: Why is Virat Kohli not playing South Africa vs India T20 Series?
Published on: Dec 8, 2023 5:59 pm IST|Updated on: Dec 9, 2023 1:25 pm IST
India’s tour of South Africa 2023 will start on December 10 with 3 T20Is followed by 3 ODIs and 2 Tests. The BCCI has announced a T20I squad where Virat Kohli has been dropped.
In a tweet following the squad announcement, the BCCI cleared the air on Rohit and Kohli’s absence from the white-ball leg. “Mr Rohit Sharma and Mr Virat Kohli had requested the Board for a break from the white-ball leg of the tour,” the tweet said. In other words, it was Kohli himself who wanted to step down from the T20I squad.
After the long ICC Men’s ODI World Cup, most of the Indian senior players are absent from the T20I squad. The last time Kohli represented the national team in T20Is was during the T20 World Cup last year. IPL and T20 World are scheduled in the 1st half of 2024. This might be the reason for them to opt out of the white ball series abroad.
Virat Kohli Last 10 T20I Innings
| Score | Opponent | Venue | Date | |
| 1 | 50 (40) | England | Adelaide | 10 Nov 2022 |
| 2 | 26 (25) | Zimbabwe | Melbourne | 6 Nov 2022 |
| 3 | 64* (44) | Bangladesh | Adelaide | 2 Nov 2022 |
| 4 | 12 (11) | South Africa | Perth | 30 OCT 2022 |
| 5 | 62* (44) | Netherlands | Sydney | 27 OCT 2022 |
| 6 | 82* (53) | Pakistan | Melbourne | 23 OCT 2022 |
| 7 | 49* (28) | South Africa | Guwahati | 2 OCT 2022 |
| 8 | 3 (9) | South Africa | Thiruvananthapuram | 28 SEP 2022 |
| 9 | 63 (48) | Australia | Hyderabad, India | 25 SEP 2022 |
| 10 | 11 (6) | Australia | Nagpur | 23 SEP 2022 |
Kohli’s last 10 matches show that he has come back in sublime form for this shortest format. The brilliance he has shown as a number 3 batsman from the last T20 World Cup, has transformed the Indian batting lineup into a dangerous army to fight in white-ball cricket. Along with this, the fitness level he is carrying forward in the field has no reason to drop him from the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024 squad. The one-down batting position of Indian cricket should be fixed across the formats of Cricket. We probably see him coming back into India’s T20I SQUAD soon with this machinery form.
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