ENG vs IND | ‘He won’t be there if I have to pick a T20 side’- Ajay Jadeja on Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli’s return to the T20 side did not go well as planned as he recorded yet another failure. Kohli, who was not a part of the squad for the first T20I joined the squad for the second game at Edgbaston. Asked to bat first, The Indian crowd was very excited to see the star Indian batter take on the English bowling line-up. 

However, much to the dismay of the Indian supporters, Kohli’s stay at the crease was short lived as he was dismissed for just 1. He miscued a Richard Gleeson delivery and the result was a fine catch by Dawid Malan, who ran backwards to complete the grab.

Kohli’s prolonged lean run of form has been a hot topic that has fuelled much debate among the fans and the cricket pundits. The star Indian batter hasn’t been in the best of form since quite some time now and looks a shadow of his own self. 

Talking about Kohli's lack of form in international cricket, former middle order batter Ajay Jadeja said that he wouldn’t pick Kohli in his T20 side, especially when the team has adopted a new method of playing aggressively throughout the innings. 

"You have been shown that there is another way of playing the same game. You are still scoring around 180 to 200. It's not that the game has changed, but you have a choice of how you want to play. I think Rohit Sharma will be making that call," Jadeja told Sony Sports.

Kohli doesn’t fit in the new way of playing T20 cricket

India have been adopting an ultra aggressive approach towards batting in T20 recently. In a surprise move, wicket keeper batter Rishabh Pant was promoted to the top of the batting order in the second T20 alongside skipper Rohit Sharma. 

Speaking about this conundrum, Jadeja said, "I think anyone who is leading the side has only two choices. That's the way I see it. Either you stick to the way you have been playing, give opportunities to youngsters or you go back to your old team that played before you started trying to give opportunities.”

India have tough choice to make?

Jadeja went on to say that Kohli shouldn’t be dropped for his lack of hundreds, rather he should be dropped owing to team India’s new strategy to approach batting in T20s aggressively.

"You look at the numbers and say 'oh, over the last 8, 10 matches, he hasn't scored a hundred'. But you don't leave him out just because he hasn't scored a hundred. You don't leave him out because of what he has done in the past."

"Virat Kohli is a choice that you have to make. Do you want to play that solidity at the top and then get runs right at the back? It's that old-style when Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma will bat at the top and you would have players like Dhoni where they get 60 in the last 4 overs,” he concluded.