Not KL Rahul Or Shreyas Iyer, Ravi Shastri Picks Surprise No. 4 Batter For India At Asia Cup

The No. 4 conundrum remains one India's biggest headaches, going into the Asia Cup 2023. While KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer are capable of delivering at the spot, they haven't played cricket for a long time. Due to their lack of match practice, India's options for the No. 4 spot are limited. Assessing the current situation, former India head coach Ravi Shastri suggested Virat Kohli's name for the spot. Shastri even revealed that he had suggested Kohli's name for the same spot in the 2019 ODI World Cup too.

In a chat with Star Sports, he also said Ishan Kishan should open the batting and Virat, skipper Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill should adjust to new positions, if needed.

Shastri added that moving Virat down the order will also break up the heavy top order and add some experience and batting depth to the lower-middle order.

"Ishan Kishan should bat right at the top of the order. Rohit as a captain is vastly experienced. He can go in at three. he can go at four. This is where you have to see the player's frame of find. How will Shubman Gill feel if asked to bat No.3 or No.4 as opposed to batting at the top? No one owns a position. If Virat has to bat at four, he will bat at four for the team," Shastri said on Star Sports.

Shastri revealed that the thought of asking Virat to drop down the order had crossed his mind while he was the head coach of Team India during the last edition of the World Cup in England.

"There were times when I thought of it even in the previous two World Cups. I might have discussed that with MSK (former Chief Selector MSK Prasad) of him batting at four, just to break that top-heavy line-up. If we lost two or three at the top, we were gone. And it was proved so just for breaking that, you need