Virat Kohli Is Certain To Have Found the Right Player for No. 4 Position

The Indian management and the skipper Virat Kohli have long been worried with the problem of who would bat at Number 4 position for the team in limited overs format.

Cricket news: Kohli feels that the player would solve the long-standing problem

Since the start of 2017, no less than eight players have been tried by the management for that position. Among all of them veteran Yuvraj Singh and Dinesh Karthik were given the maximum time to cement their place.

Although they did pretty well, yet they could not show the amount of consistency the management wanted to see. While Yuvraj got 358 runs from 9 innings with an average of 45, Karthik got 264 from 9 innings with an average of 53.

But the main problem was that both the players had got the majority of their runs from just two or three innings. These inconsistent form forced the management to look for players beyond these two cricketers.

In the ODI series against the Windies it is already confirmed that Ambati Rayudu will bat at the most coveted Number 4 position. He will become the ninth player to be tested for that position.

Meanwhile skipper Virat Kohli has revealed that he wants to keep his faith on Rayudu and wants to give the Hyderabadi batsman enough time to seal his place. The 33-year-old has performed well in the Asia Cup, scoring 175 runs from six innings with an average of 43.75.

“The only position we were trying to figure out was number four for a long time. We tried many players who unfortunately could not capitalise or cement their places in a way we wanted. With Rayudu coming in and playing well in the Asia Cup, it’s about giving him enough game time till the World Cup so that the particular slot will be sorted for us,” said Virat Kohli.

Although Rayudu is currently seen as the best fit for the coveted position and is hence considered for the 2019 World Cup, yet his career has often been halted because of various injuries. Kohli has also mentioned the fact that Rayudu’s inclusion would add the extra amount of balance in the middle order.

“The team felt it there, and I also watched him. He (Rayudu) is designed to play that middle order batsman’s role. We feel that our middle-order is more or less balanced now,” Kohli said. “We believe he is the right person to capitalise on that spot. He is experienced and has won many games for his state and also in the IPL. He has a great ODI record already for India. I think the batting order is sorted.”