What Virat Kohli’s five runs from nine balls tell about India’s batting

India’s Virat Kohli reacts as he walks off the field after losing his wicket during the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup cricket match between United States and India at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in Westbury, New York, Wednesday, June 12, 2024. (AP/PTI)

Three innings, nine balls, five runs. The numbers tell a sorry tale of Virat Kohli’s World Cup. But if there is a Kohli story that the cold, stone numbers don’t tell, it is how he has been at the heart of India’s brave new philosophy at this T20 World Cup. He has failed, so far, in translating the gung-ho approach into concrete runs, but that is only incidental in the larger scheme of how India is embracing modern ethos without dispensing entirely with the old-guard. Against Afghanistan in the Super Eight game in Barbados on Thursday, the bold punt taken by captain Rohit Sharma and coach Rahul Dravid would be tested. (READ MORE)

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