New Delhi, June 1: Former Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly picked batting maestro Virat Kohli to open with India captain Rohit Sharma in the ICC T20 World Cup, taking place in the USA and West Indies from June 1 to 29.

Kohli coming into the T20 WC with a sensational 2024 IPL season while opening the batting for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). In the recently concluded Indian Premier League, the 35-year-old who featured for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru won the Orange Cap for scoring most runs in the 17th edition of the cash-rich league.

He scored 741 runs in 15 matches at an average of 61.75, with a century and five fifties. His best score was 113* and his strike rate stood at 154.69, the highest it has ever been for Kohli in a single IPL season.

Ganguly thinks that India's star hitter playing freely as he did in the second part of the IPL would be crucial for India in the T20 World Cup. "I would open with Virat and Rohit. I want Virat to bat the way he did for RCB in the second half of the IPL. He has to bat with freedom. Needless to say, he is a great player, but for India to do well, Virat will have to bat with freedom like he did in the IPL. So my choice would be Virat and Rohit at the top of the order," Sourav Ganguly told Revsportz.

Rishabh Pant made a roaring comeback to professional cricket after a major car accident in December 2022 and the swashbuckling left-hander made 446 runs at an average of 40.54 and a strike-rate of 155.40 in IPL. Pant also claimed a joint-high 16 dismissals with the gloves during the most recent India Premier League (IPL) season.

The former captain also hailed the wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant's ability to smash shots all over the ground and also expressed confidence in the 26-year-old player to perform well in T20 WC.

"He is a very special talent. His keeping is good, but his batting really special. He is capable of picking some great angles in the ground, and that's his USP. Not every player will be able to do that, you see. And that's what makes Pant very important for India. He has worked very very hard to make this comeback and is hungry to do well. I am confident he will make a telling difference," he added.

The ICC T20 World Cup will be played in the West Indies and the USA from June 1 to 29. In the tournament, India will be aiming to end their ICC trophy drought, having last won the ICC Champions Trophy in 2013. Since then, India has reached the 50-over World Cup final in 2023, semifinal in 2015 and 2019, the title clash of the ICC World Test Championship in 2021 and 2023, T20 WC final in 2014, semifinals in 2016 and 2022 but failed to secure a big ICC trophy.

India will be aiming to win their first T20 WC title since they won the inaugural edition of the tournament back in 2007 in South Africa. In the last edition held in Australia in 2022, India lost to England by 10 wickets in the semifinals.

India T20 WC Squad

Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.

(ANI)

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