Former India pacer Ashish Nehra has come out in support of beleaguered Virat Kohli after several former cricketers, including the legendary Kapil Dev, voiced their opposition to his inclusion in the national T20 team.

Virat Kohli's rut with the bat has shown no sign of ending. He last made a century in any form of international cricket in the historic Pink-ball Test against Bangladesh in November 2019.

Coming back to his recent performances, Virat Kohli featured in two T20I games against England but could only register scores of 1 and 11 in his innings at Edgbaston and Trent Bridge respectively.

Before that, Virat Kohli took part in the fifth and fifth final Test against England at Birmingham but couldn't reignite his form as he was dismissed for 11 and 20 in his two knocks there.

Virat Kohli also had a woeful run in the Indian Premier League (IPL) as he could manage to score only 341 runs at a dismal average of 22.73 in 16 matches.

Virat Kohli didn't feature in India's first ODI triumph against England at The Oval in London on Tuesday.

The out-of-form star India batter suffered a groin injury in the final T20I at Trent Bridge and was forced to sit out the game in the British capital.

However, more than his injury, it is the lack of runs from his bat that has been a major worry for the Indian team.

Nonetheless, Ashish Nehra is hopeful of Virat Kohli's return to form.

Declaring it wasn't the time to criticize Virat Kohli as he deserved all the support for doing so much for the country in the past, Ashish Nehra even took an indirect dig at Kapil Dev who had earlier asked for his removal from India's limited-overs sides.

“There will be discussions even if you're not a player of Kohli's calibre. When you are playing, you try to focus on your game and not listen to so-called ‘outside voices' from people outside the dressing room. It's important how your teammates, management and selectors are backing you… but we are talking about a guy like Virat. Yes, it's not written anywhere that he will keep playing for India even if he doesn't score runs. But when you have done so much in the past, you will always get extra chances,” said Ashish Nehra in a virtual interaction organized by Sony Sports.

“Everybody knows his accomplishments and the talent he has. At the age of 33, fitness isn't a problem for him. Everybody is hopeful that Virat will come good, the quicker the better. Let's hope we see a different Virat after the West Indies series. If he rests for a month or five odd weeks, it will be helpful for him,” he added.

“Yes, you get dropped when you don't perform. However, there are many ifs and buts. When you're a player like Virat who has scored runs and done so much for the country, he can't be dropped straightaway. Yes, Virat hasn't been among runs but dropping him isn't the solution. We are discussing Virat as an example. Even Rohit struggled before returning to form in the 50-over game. But he struggled in this year's IPL and other Twenty20 games. With the emergence of all formats, a player who plays across all three will get more chances to score but he can fail too,” Ashish Nehra explained.

Kapil Dev's remarks against Virat Kohli had led to a huge furor on social media and several Indian cricket admirers had hit out at the 1983 World cup-winning skipper for disrespecting the Delhi-born cricketer's past accomplishments.

“Yes, now the situation is such that you might be forced to bench Kohli from T20 playing eleven. If world No. 2 bowler Ashwin can be dropped from Test side then (once upon a time) world No. 1 batter can also be dropped,” Kapil Dev said in an interaction with ABP News.

“Virat is not batting at a level which we have seen him do over the years. He has made a name because of his performances but if he isn’t performing, then you can’t keep the performing youngsters out of the team. I want competition for places in team in a positive sense that these youngsters should try and outperform Virat,” Kapil Dev claimed.

“Play in-form players when you have loads of options. You can’t just go by reputation but you have to look for current form. You can be an established player but that doesn’t mean that you will be given chances even if you fail five games in a row,” Kapil Dev concluded.