Kohli, Pant tipped to feature in India's T20 World Cup squad

Virat Kohli notched up a record eighth century in Royal Challengers Bengaluru's previous outing against 2008 winners Rajasthan Royals at the Indian Premier League. The former RCB skipper has been Bengaluru's lone warrior with the willow in their first five games of the new season. Registering his joint career-best score of 113* against Rajasthan, Kohli has two more centuries than second-placed batters - Chris Gayle and Jos Buttler (6) in the elite list.

Kohli remained unbeaten on 113 off 72 balls to help RCB post 183-3 in 20 overs. In the same encounter, 2022 Orange Cap winner Jos Buttler slammed a 58-ball century to seal RR's six-wicket win in 19.1 overs. Kohli completed his century in 67 balls, which is the joint-slowest ton in the history of IPL. Manish Pandey scored a century in 67 balls to notch up the slowest ton against Deccan Chargers back in the IPL 2009.

Kohli's strike rate has come under the scanner of his critics in the T20 World Cup year. However, there is no denying that the former India skipper is taking risks and playing aggressive cricket in the world's richest T20 tournament - the IPL. Even legendary West Indies cricketer Brian Lara cleared Kohli's candidature and kept him in his list of the top 3 batters for the T20 World Cup.

No way Virat Kohli going to be left out
According to a report filed by Cricbuzz, Kohli is expected to retain his place in the Indian T20 squad for the ICC event later this year. Even though Kohli's strike rate was questioned in the IPL 2024, the report suggested that there was no way Kohli would be left out of the World Cup squad. In the first five IPL games, Kohli batted at a strike rate of 146.29 as an RCB opener. The 35-year-old is the leading run-getter at the IPL 2024.

With Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal as openers, it will be interesting to see how selectors add Shubman Gill to the batting lineup if Kohli seals his No.3 position in the World Cup squad. The report mentioned that Delhi Capitals skipper Rishabh Pant is also leading the selection race for the vacant wicketkeeper position at the T20 World Cup. Pant has an edge over wicketkeeper-batters Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Jitesh Sharma and KL Rahul in the IPL 2024.

In his comeback season at the IPL 2024, Pant has smashed 153 runs in five games for the Delhi Capitals. Pant has registered scores of 18, 28, 51, 55 and 1 for the Delhi Capitals. "Let a few more matches go. He is doing very well, as you all must have seen, keeping batting. So he's held up well and his form has been fantastic, especially the way he has batted in the last two games. So let another week go and I'll be able to answer that question, provided the selectors want to pick him. So that's most important. Yeah, yeah, he's fully fit," former Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Ganguly had said. Ajit Agarkar-led BCCI selection committee is tipped to pick India's squad for the T20 World Cup in the first week of May.