ICC World Cup 2023: "If KL Rahul Doesn’t Get Fit..." - Ravichandran Ashwin's Take On Ravi Shastri's 'Virat Kohli Can Bat At No.4' Remark

Veteran India National Cricket Team off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has shared his take on former head coach Ravi Shastri’s suggestion of Virat Kohli batting at the No.4 position in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023.

The No.4 batting position in the Indian ODI team has yet again become the talking point ahead of the World Cup similar to the previous edition of the tournament in 2019.

India’s first-choice No.4 batter Shreyas Iyer is still recovering from an injury and other players like Suryakumar Yadav and Sanju Samson have failed to seal their spot in the middle-order in Iyer’s absence.

Former India head coach Ravi Shastri has come up with plenty of suggestions to address India’s long-standing concerns about a settled batter at that crucial position and one of the ideas pushed forward by him was Kohli giving up his No.3 spot and shifting one position down.

“If Virat has to bat at four, he will bat at four in the interest of the side. You know, there were times I thought of it,” Shastri told Star Sports channel.

“You know, because if we lose two or three at the top, we are gone and it was proved. If you look at Virat Kohli’s record, he is good enough at number four.”

Virat Kohli batted at number 4 in that World Cup – Ravichandran Ashwin

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Ashwin discussed Shastri’s World Cup suggestion for Kohli. He said that Kohli can only bat at the No.4 spot if wicketkeeper-batter KL Rahul gets ruled out and India open with Ishan Kishan. He elaborated:

“Virat Kohli batted at number 4 in that World Cup [2011]. In fact, Ravi Bhai has mentioned that, if necessary, Virat Kohli should bat at number 4. I think he mentioned that so that we can accommodate a left-hander.

“The only way that can happen is if KL Rahul doesn’t get fit, and when they need a keeper, they can open with Ishan Kishan. That’s the only possibility because Shreyas Iyer is one of the go-to players for Team India in ODIs as a batter.”

Overall, Kohli has got good numbers at No.4 spot in ODIs as in 39 games he has scored 1767 runs at an amazing average of 55.22, including seven centuries and eight half-centuries.