After the No. 4 Debate, a former Indian cricketer brutally recalls the 2007 ODI World Cup

Who bats at number four for India in this ODI World Cup? The Indian squad had trouble finding a good batter for the position in 2019, and they are still having trouble doing so less than two months before the main tournament begins.

Not that they lack candidates, mind you. They have two excellent possibilities in Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul, but there are still questions about their fitness.

The idea of Virat Kohli giving up the No. 3 place and batting a rung lower to fill the gap has been suggested by World Cup champion and former India head coach Ravi Shastri, and it has the support of people like Sunil Gavaskar and Tom Moody.

Sanjay Manjrekar, another former cricketer for India, says that Kohli is being used as a “scapegoat” and as a panacea for all the team’s problems.

Virat Kohli “seems to be marginalized the more you speak about other possibilities like Ishan Kishan. He’s kind of turned into the scapegoat in the sense that if you bat him at No. 4, all your issues would be resolved, according to Manjrekar.

Then he recalled how a similar effort with Sachin Tendulkar had failed during the 2007 ODI World Cup, leading to India’s early elimination.

Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly, India’s two chosen openers in ODIs, have an outstanding track record together. Tendulkar, who was batting in the middle order and twice at position four, had a duck and seven runs in his two innings.

In Indian cricket, there is also a cultural problem. When the squad was competing in the 2007 World Cup, Rahul Dravid and Greg Chappell decided not to start Tendulkar at the top of the lineup since they had Virender Sehwag and other players ahead of him. But it sparked a major debate. So, the decision to bat at No. 4 actually rests with legendary batsman Virat Kohli. It seems to be a very straightforward answer, but it worries Kohli,” Manjrekar added.

Former Indian cricketer Dodda Ganesh has also rejected the concept of Kohli batting at No. 4, saying a team’s greatest batsman should bat in his “customary position.”

“Your greatest hitter should bat in the spot where he typically plays and has the most success. Not a fan of Kohli batting at position four simply because the club has struggled to identify a hitter for so long. Remember when Sachin was asked to bat at position four during the 2007 World Cup,” Ganesh said on X, the platform that replaced Twitter.