Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma face major disrespect as ex-cricketer picks most explosive opening pair of T20 World Cup 2024

Cricket pundit Aakash Chopra denied putting Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli among the most explosive opening pairs in ICC T20 World Cup 2024.

Aakash Chopra made this comment on the eve of India's second Super 8 match against Bangladesh in the ICC T20 WC in the USA and West Indies. The Men in Blue will have one foot inside the semi-finals if they win tonight. After this game, they are slated to take on bitter rivals Australia, who denied them two ICC trophies last year - the World Test Championship and the ODI World Cup.

In order for India to not repeat those same mistakes again, the form of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli will become extremely important. Both of them are yet to fully showcase their run-scoring prowess ever since the duo got together to open for the first time ever in their careers.

While Rohit Sharma does have one half-century in the 20-team T20 WC, Virat Kohli hasn't even scored 30 runs in one match. The former India captain, after scoring just 5 runs across three Group A matches, scored 24 runs recently against Afghanistan in the first Super 8 match.

29 runs from the first four matches for a player who is the highest run-getter in the history of this tournament is just not good enough. Virat Kohli will need to up his game and most importantly help the Indian side like he has always done in past ICC events, be it the shortest or the 50-over format.

Not just Virat Kohli but Rohit Sharma, too, has to make his bat do the talking. As of now, the Indian duo have remained very quiet. So much so that Aakash Chopra hesitated from naming them among the best opening pairs in the ICC T20 World Cup 2024.

Aakash Chopra snubs Rohit-Virat and approves Jos Buttler-Phil Salt as the most dangerous pair in this WC

While speaking in his latest YouTube video, Aakash Chopra claimed that he won't put Rohit Sharma-Virat Kohli's pairing as a dangerous one. In fact, Chopra admitted that the duo didn't deserve to be included for simply not being consistent enough.

"Unfortunately, I won't be able to put Rohit and Virat's name on that list because they are not even consistent as of now, and secondly, they are definitely not explosive if you see it from that perspective. Both have the ability - yes, but are they currently - no.

With that being said, Aakash Chopra named England's Jos Buttler-Phil Salt and Australia's Travis Head-David Warner as the most explosive pairing. Chopra feels that it will be a close fight towards the end of the tournament but he will go with the English pairing.

"So from a very unbiased point of view, I feel they are not on this list. So Phil Salt with Jos Buttler, and David Warner with Travis Head will remain. It's an incredibly close fight. I am actually going with Phil Salt and Jos Buttler, although Travis Head and David Warner are equally dangerous," Aakash Chopra concluded.