England vs India’s ODI Bradman: Virat Kohli

India's cricketer Virat Kohli checks his bat during a practice session ahead of their ICC Twenty20 Cricket World Cup match against England, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Saturday, Sept. 22, 2012. (AP)

Published Sunday, September 23, 2012

By Staff

There is not much Mahendra Singh Dhoni can do, except marshal the troops, hope that Virender Sehwag clicks,

Suresh Raina sustains his form and he himself ‘choppers’ away.

Of course, when all else fails there is Virat Kohli.

Dhoni might be tempted to drop him against England today, just to make sure he is not ‘over-played’ before India hits the Super Eights.

England will be hoping for that as well.

A section of the British press has already coined the phrase ‘one-day Bradman’ and as against Afghanistan, without Kohli India look fragile.

Kohli’s ODI stats may have something to do with that.

In 87 ODI innings he has scored 13 centuries at a strike-rate of 86. Five of those hundreds have come in his last nine ODIs.

Kohli is to India what Kevin Pietersen is to England, or was, except perhaps with less penchant for SMSing.

That India and England are already through to the Super 8s suggests Stuart Broad will look to polish a ready team, while Dhoni will hope his bowling attack finds some teeth.

Four bowlers or five, it will not matter if Luke Wright is on form.

Craig Kieswetter, Alex Hales, Jos Butler and Jonathan Bairstow add to the firepower, while Steven Finn, Jade Dernbach Graeme Swann and Samit Patel, along with Broad certainly seem more threatening than Zaheer, Harbhajan and Co.

In fact, Yuvraj seems India’s best bowling weapon by some measure.

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