JULY 26, 2022
Only recently, a visibly distraught Rohit Sharma had rapped a journalist when he asked the Indian captain about his views on former cricketer Kapil Dev’s statement on Virat Kohli which went viral within hours. The 1983 World Cup winner had opined that Kohli can be benched if he is not scoring runs, asking if a spinner like Ravichandran Ashwin can be dropped, then why not Virat Kohli.
Calling out these ‘so-called experts,’ Rohit had told the scribe that he doesn’t pay any heed to these former cricketers who are talking on the ‘outside.’
In fact, all the hullaballo had already begun when Kohli scored 12 runs in the two T20 games he played against England after he was ‘rested’ for the series opener.
However, things could have improved had Kohli got going in the ODIs, but there too, his run drought continued. Nonetheless, fans would hope Kohli to get back in form as early as possible as the T20 World Cup is just around the corner. Even former cricketer Pragyan Ojha voiced similar opinion, explaining why the management is backing Kohli to the hilt.
“When you talk about Virat Kohli, you have to understand the things he has achieved … they are not normal. Getting those 70 hundreds in a span of about ten years is outstanding. Who are the other players who have done that? Not many. That is the reason why Rohit [Sharma], Rahul bhai [Dravid| and the team are backing him. They know that if he gets that one knock, things will turn around and suddenly you will see the old Virat Kohli. And when you have that Virat Kohli in your team and you’re going for the T20 World Cup and then the 50-overs World Cup, any team would do anything to get him. I think it’s just a matter of time,” he told Cricket Journalist Jamie Alter On Glance.
“See, with cricket it’s not about mathematics that two plus two is four. You will fail. That’s the beauty of sport. This is Virat Kohli we’re talking about. His conversion rate has been tremendous. He used to go to bat and get hundreds and the bar was set so high that now we don’t talk about Virat getting a 30 or 40 … uska 50 bhi ek failure count hota hai because the bar is 100.”
He added that Kohli doesn’t lack in his skills, saying that ‘he is little caught up somewhere.’ It must be mentioned that the former cricketer has asked for rest for a number of times. After IPL, he was rested and then again a request was put forward to the Board prior to the Windies tour.
“When you look at Virat’s batting, it is not about the skill or that he’s not timing it well or his fitness has taken a beating. He’s just there, and I think better than others with his work ethic and discipline. The only thing is that maybe mentally he’s a little caught up somewhere. Maybe that’s why he’s been regularly taking breaks.”
With Kohli missing the West Indies tour, there are reports emerging that he might be ‘pushed’ to play against Zimbabwe where the India team will play three ODIs. But if that doesn’t pan out, he would play the Asia Cup 2022 which doesn’t begin before August end.
