India is yet to win an ICC tournament since 2013 when they defeated England to clinch the Champions Trophy. The team has suffered from a title drought since then, where India has seemingly relied upon its top-order batsmen - Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, and Virat Kohli. However, the middle-order has failed to deliver in the rare occurrence of a top order failure.

While speaking in the pre-match conference ahead of the 1st T20I versus Sri Lanka, Kohli addressed the issue and shed light upon how the focus is upon the lower-order line-up to prove themselves ahead of the T20 World Cup.

India has a packed schedule in the limited-overs format this year, where they start with their assignment against Sri Lanka (T20Is) and Australia (ODI) before leaving New Zealand for a fully-fledged series. Scheduled to host South Africa and England before the T20 World Cup, the management will be hoping to tick all of their boxes in both the batting and bowling department.

Also see – PSL schedule

While India is constantly testing Rishabh Pant in the absence of MS Dhoni to keep wickets for the side, the team has also banked upon the likes of Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar to provide depth in the batting order. More recently, the team has integrated the likes of Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, and Navdeep Saini in the T20 setup.

Kohli expressed his happiness on how India’s T20I squad is beginning to take shape ahead of the T20 World Cup. He said:

India’s limited-overs vice-captain Rohit Sharma has been rested for the T20I series against Sri Lanka. The team has an able replacement in Shikhar Dhawan, who will return to the side after recovering from a knee injury he suffered in November.

In Shikhar’s absence, KL Rahul has performed brilliantly as an opener for India against the West Indies. Rahul scored 164 runs in 3 T20Is with two half-centuries to his name. He also struck 185 runs in the three following ODIs, showing a glimpse of his form in white-ball cricket.

Talking about what the opening combination might look like, Virat Kohli said:

India had a remarkable 2019 despite the loss in the semi-final of the 2019 Cricket World Cup. When asked about what’s in store for India in 2020, Kohli said:

Kohli also spoke highly about the culture of motivating the players to focus upon winning matches for the team rather than focusing upon individual performances. He added:

Guwahati will host the first T20I between India and Sri Lanka on 5th January, from where the action will move to Indore (7th January) and Pune (10th January).

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