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Is it right to change Virat Kohli's batting position ahead of World Cup 2015?

The mainstay of Indian batting line-up - Virat Kohli - sacrificed his one-down position for Ajinkya Rahane during India's opening match of the triangular series against home team Australia at Melbourne Cricket Ground, as the former played at number four.

Is it right to change Virat Kohli's batting position ahead of World Cup 2015?

New Delhi: The mainstay of Indian batting line-up - Virat Kohli - sacrificed his one-down position for Ajinkya Rahane during India's opening match of the triangular series against home team Australia at Melbourne Cricket Ground, as the former played at number four.

Kohli, who has been performing outstandingly well for India while batting at number three in the ODIs, was pushed to number four because skipper MS Dhoni is facing a sweet problem up the order.

With Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma all in the playing XI and having performed exceptionally well while opening the innings in the ODIs, it's difficult for Dhoni to pick the two openers.

Dhawan is a genuine opener, so one slot is fixed. But there is a tough fight between Sharma and Rahane for the other slot.

After Sharma's record-breaking second double ton against Sri Lanka, few months back, the right-hander consolidated his position for the opening slot. Whereas, Rahane too has proved in the recent past that he can be handy while playing against the new ball.

However, at the moment, Rohit has an upper hand and after his magnificent ton in India's first match of the series, he has almost sealed the other opening slot for the forthcoming World Cup, starting next month.

But is it right to shuffle the position of India's prime batsman Kohli? At least, the experiment didn't go well in the first match.

The 26-year-old, who scored four hundreds in the recently concluded Test series against Australia, only managed to score nine runs in the second ODI.

It's a warm up series before the mega cricket carnival where MS Dhoni is trying different permutation and combinations. But is it right to disturb the position of a batsman, who is quite comfortable and has scored heavily at number three, that too just ahead of the marquee event?