ICC World Cup 2023: 'If They Had Allowed Virat Kohli To Continue As Captain...': Former PAK Skipper Comments On India's Preparation Ahead Of ODI WC

Former Pakistan skipper, Rashid Latif shared his opinion on the Men in Blues’ preparation for the upcoming ODI World Cup in India and said that if Virat Kohli had been the captain of the host then the squad would have been ready by now.

Virat Kohli was removed from the captaincy of the 50-over format after the star Indian player decided to leave his responsibilities after T20 World Cup 2021 in United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The decision was taken by the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) selection committee as they wanted to have the same skipper in all three cricket formats, following which Rohit Sharma took charge of captaincy.

While speaking to Cricket Baaz, the former Pakistani skipper made a bombastic comment and said that the Men in Blues would have been ready for the upcoming World Cup if the host kept Virat Kohli as their captain.

India would have been 100 percent ready: Rashid Latif if Virat Kohli still had been the captain

“If they had allowed Virat Kohli to continue as captain, India would have been 100 percent ready for the World Cup by this time,” Rashid Latif said.

The 54-year-old believes that the India team management has made a mistake after experimenting with the middle order in the batting lineup and said that they did not give any time to the players to settle at their new position due to frequent changes.

“Indian team management has experimented with several players and if I talk about their batting the middle and lower order say from 4 to 7 they just have not allowed any new player to settle down with frequent changes. I say risky because KL and Iyer are returning from injuries,” added Rashid Latif.

Latif explained how the Asian teams will struggle to score runs in the middle order due to fast strikes while the countries won’t find any difficulties since their players have mastered the reverse sweep and switch shots against spinners.

“The one area where I feel Asian teams will struggle to match these sides are particularly in the middle overs when a fast strike rate is required even in 50-overs. The English, Australian, and New Zealand batters have turned to reverse sweep and switch shots against the spinners into something very lethal nowadays,” Latif further added.

India will get an extra advantage in the forthcoming ODI World Cup since the Men in Blues will play in front of their home fans. However, the pressure will be on Rohit Sharma since India have not won an ICC trophy for the last 10 years, and the hosts will be looking forward to ending the trophyless streak.

India will start their ODI World Cup journey against Australia on October 8th at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.