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Raina Prefers Virat Kohli At No.3, Discards Dravid's Opening Idea With Rohit At T20 World Cup 2024

image-lraafbwxVirat Kohli will return for 2nd and 3rd T20Is versus Afghanistan (Twitter)

Even as head coach Rahul Dravid kept the option of opening with the veteran duo of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli alive ahead of the T20 World Cup 2024, Suresh Raina disagreed with his former India skipper and said Kohli's best as a T20I batter comes out when he is guiding the team from an end at No. 3. 

Kohli's persistent issues against spin may have encouraged talks of promoting the modern-day great now that he has returned to the shortest format, but Raina doesn't feel it's the best way forward after Dravid hinted it is one of the options on the table.


Raina referred to the legendary duo of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly and said a left and right-hand combination at the top is often key to disrupting the bowlers' plans early on. Raina backed young Yashasvi Jaiswal to continue flourishing at the top for India.


Raina Denounces Kohli The Opener Idea 

Kohli ultimately missed the first T20I versus Afghanistan due to "personal reasons," and India didn't have the opportunity to immediately trial the Rohit-Kohli opening duo.

However, his former India teammate wants him to continue anchoring the innings in the middle order as he has done with success over the years.

"I prefer Kohli to bat at No.3 because if Yasasvi plays, he will open with Rohit because of that left-right combination. We have seen in the past when Gambhir and Sehwag used to play or when Sachin and Dada (Sourav Ganguly) used to play. And it is not just because of the combination, they are both attacking batters," Raina was quoted as saying Hindustan Times. "With Kohli at No.3, India's line-up looks more solid. He runs between the wickets, and keeps that scoreboard ticking. I feel his ideal position is No. 3."

Kohli's longstanding issues against spin have tended to uphold the talks of him opening the innings for India in the T20 World Cup. Since January 2019, he has had a strike rate of just 114.7 in T20Is over 43 innings and 112.9 from 54 IPL innings versus all tweakers.