India vs England T20 World Cup Semi-Final: Virat Kohli's Poor Form, Rain Threat And Major Talking Points

It will be a battle of T20I titans as the Men in Blue will be taking on England in the semifinals of the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2024 at Guyana on Thursday. It will witness the Jos Buttler-led England aim for a second successive T20 WC final, while Men in Blue will be aiming to avenge a brutal 10-wicket loss to the same opponent in the final four clash of the 2022 tournament at Adelaide. Since that heartbreaking loss at Adelaide, the Men in Blue have made a lot of changes to their white-ball game, introducing a plethora of young and more explosive talent like Rinku Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Ruturaj Gaikwad, etc leading upto the tournament.

Though the Men in Blue decided to revert back to experienced campaigners skipper Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli after an incredible, record-shattering 50-over World Cup in India, the explosiveness and risk-taking defining the modern T20 cricket still forms the heart of India's approach, as witnessed by the performances of these two legends in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, especially Virat, who turned into a six-hitting, spin-demolishing machine of the older days, abandoning his more conservative and measured approach to the short format.

However, Virat has failed to translate his IPL form into the international arena, scoring just 66 runs in six games at an average of 11.00, with a best score of 37 and two ducks. Having scored the most runs in T20 Cup history, this campaign has put somewhat of a dent on his legacy as the best batter ever to grace the tournament. All would be forgiven, however, if Virat returned to his clutch ways in knockouts. Notably, Virat has smacked a half-century in every T20 World Cup knockout game, including 72* (2014 semifinal), 77 (2014