India's Kohli and Rohit-shaped elephant in the room

There is every chance Rohit Sharma carries his ODI World Cup form into the T20 World Cup. He already has the intent. Who is to rule out that he unleashes the turbocharged version of the 135-plus strike rate in the powerplays in ODIs and continues going even harder after the sixth over in T20s, not putting a heavy price on his wicket because he knows of the muscle to follow?

If Virat Kohli makes up his mind, can he not take on the spinners in the middle overs? He can even open the innings, thus forcing the opposition to bowl spin in the powerplay, and manages to hit them because of the field restrictions reducing the amount of spin India have to face in the middle overs.

Anything can happen in T20 cricket especially with conditions being such a big unknown. Yet, on this day, the 8th of January, about five months before the T20 World Cup, it can objectively be said India are hoping to derive different results by doing the same thing over and over again.

The story of the last four T20 World Cups has been the same. India's top order has been caught batting first in a game, unenterprisingly so, which has resulted in their ouster. Unless they are hoping to win every toss and be chasing, there must be some compelling reasons to pick a similar squad for the Afghanistan T20I series, which all but guarantees Rohit and Kohli will go to the World Cup now after having not played any T20 internationals since the 2022 T20 World Cup.

Rohit has not had a year in T20 cricket where he has struck at 140 or above since 2018. His IPL team has already replaced him as captain looking at a prolonged dry run as a batter.

Kohli faced 124 balls of spin in the middle overs of the IPL last year for a strike-rate of just 110. He made just 32 attempts to hit a boundary. By comparison, Suryakumar Yadav tried to hit a boundary off 59 out of 148 balls of spin he faced in the middle overs. In the whole of IPL, a boundary attempt was made once every 3.43 balls of spin in the middle overs, which is better than Kohli doing it once every 3.88 balls. If he bats at No. 3, Kohli's main role will be in these middle overs.

These are the most obvious and basic things for us to point out. The selectors and the team management are equipped with more advanced metrics that will tell you an XI is too small for two such batters. Perhaps even one. The decision-makers in this case are smart former cricketers who are not being unmindful. In that case, in the absence of a press conference following the selection, we must try to look at plausible reasons.

Hardik Pandya is injured. His fitness and availability are not the most reliable at the best of times. In his absence, Suryakumar captained the side for the Australia T20Is in late November last year, but he is injured too. This team for the Afghanistan series seems to be one of those rare selections where a captain has been chosen before debating the best 15. It seems they felt the team needed a leader, and they saw something promising in Rohit's form and intent in ODIs.

In all likelihood, once they brought Rohit back, leaving out Kohli, which in any case would have been an unpopular and a bold decision, it became even more so because how do you bring back one and leave out the other? We anticipated that dilemma once Rahul Dravid accepted an extension to his coaching job.

A month later, despite being aware of everything, the leaders of the team have decided to bring back both Rohit and Kohli, which will likely result in there being no room for Tilak Varma, Shreyas Iyer or Rinku Singh in the playing XI. Even Shubman Gill for that matter, who had a great IPL 2023 showing both intent and the game to play the T20 format. These are players who provide a better structure to the team by being either left-hand or a spin hitter or a "finisher". Players in whom the leadership invested between the two World Cups. Players who proved themselves.

If there is a saving grace, it is that Kohli seems to have read the room. He attacked one in eight balls of spin in the middle overs in the IPL 2022 and had a strike rate of 105. That intent has definitely improved. There is also an element of asking Kohli to show an improved game in this series against Afghanistan and the IPL 2024 because he could have easily waltzed back in without any games straight into the T20 World Cup side. The same probably goes for Rohit.

There is still room then to leave both or one of them out if their game doesn't look up to the scratch for the T20 format. There is probably an element of them not coming back as a matter of right. That they might actually have to earn their spots.

These two are ultimate competitors and expert batters. You can't bet against them achieving anything if they put their mind to it. Rohit has a game more naturally suited to the format so perhaps he will find it easier than Kohli, who on his part, is batting as well as he has ever batted in the other two formats. At this point, though, all that is more hope than evidence-based conviction.