All eyes on Virat and Rohit as India face Afghanistan in 2nd T20I

INDORE: Normally, it’s difficult to find interest in a bilateral game, that too involving India and Afghanistan.

However, the second T20I between these teams at the Holkar Stadium here has plenty of excitement in stores.

On Sunday, for the first time since the 2022 T20 World Cup semifinal exit — when Team India suffered a ten-wicket thrashing at the hands of England in Adelaide, cricket icons Virat Kohli, who will replace Tilak Varma in all likelihood, and Rohit Sharma will feature together in a T20I.

Both were out of India’s side for the shortest format for the past 14 months, but, in a debatable decision, were thrown a T20I lifeline by India’s selectors when they were recalled for this series.

While Rohit was run out for a duck in the first T20I in Mohali, Kohli missed the game due to personal reasons.

The few spectators who gathered to watch Team India practice at this venue on Saturday had a rare chance to watch Rohit and Kohli bat in adjacent nets.

Desperately in search of runs, Rohit later trained at the nets near the match wicket too, while Kohli batted in three different nets, facing India’s pacers Arshdeep Singh and Mukesh Kumar, and legspinner Ravi Bishnoi, besides taking on the net bowlers.

Since the T20 World Cup semifinal, the selectors took a policy decision to keep both Rohit and Kohli out of India’s T20I team, while trying out many youngsters, with Hardik Pandya at the helm.

However, injuries to Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav, and the ‘unavailability’ of ’keeper-bat Ishan Kishan, cut down the batting options for the selectors, who were literally forced to give the ageing duo another shot at T20I glory.

Still, the brilliance and experience that the duo bring at this level can’t be ignored.

Fans still remember how Kohli took down Pakistan’s pacers during that match-winning, unbeaten 82 off 53 balls in Melbourne in 2022.

Rohit, when he gets going, can be destructive too.

How the duo performs, in what is India’s final T20I series before the T20 World Cup in the US and West Indies, will be interesting to see.

The Rohit-Kohli reunion apart, India will be delighted with the superb performance of allrounder Shivam Dube, who was crucial in India’s six-wicket win in the first T20I.