Virat Kohli as an opener - Why has he not played more at that position in international cricket?

[MenInG]

Virat Kohli's record as an opener in ODIs probably not that amazing.

Innings 7
Runs 166
Avg 23.7

But in T20Is he seems to on a different planet!

Innings 9
Runs 400
Avg 57
SR 161

And his numbers in all T20 cricket:

Innings 71
Runs 3283
Avg 46
SR 140

Why does he not play at that position more often in T20Is?

What Pakistan would do for a batter with that record as an opener!

 

[Firebat]

Surprised that he's played 115 T20Is for India and only opened 9 times.

 

[Rana]

Terrible t20 opener.,

India’s best T20 openers are Jaiswal, Gill and Sharma

Vankatesh Iyer has a good shout too.

 

[Rana]

^Gaikwad isn’t too bad either

 

[Ab Fan]

Because he has done a great job at no.3 itself. Why fix something which is already doing well?

Also, India had Rohit and Rahul who were doing great in T20Is in bilaterals so the top 3 was well set till the T20 World Cup came and exposed Rahul vs top teams.

Now obviously, he is not gonna be bothered much with T20Is and his focus is on ODI World Cup, so he will let the youngsters run the show and take forward in T20s.

 

[Colorblind Genius]

Why does he not play at that position more often in T20Is?
!

Simply because India doesn’t need him to open.
And if he opens, then who plays at no 3?

You put anyone at No 3 and he won’t be better than Kohli.

And one of the reasons is the general rule of thumb in cricket, your BEST and most reliable batsman comes at no 3. (and rarely at 4 or 2)
If you don’t follow this rule without a genuine reason, you open holes in your batting line.