India talisman Virat Kohli may have resurrected his career in T20Is and ODIs, ending his over 1,000-day drought in both formats of the game but he failed to replicate the same in Test cricket. His recent failures not only led to his trolling on social media but also received some harsh words from his childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma.
The criticism of Virat Kohli from Rajkumar Sharma came after he could only post scores of 1, 19 not out, 24, and 1 in the just-concluded two-match Test series against Bangladesh.
The Delhi-born cricket star's poor display with the bat meant that he finished the series with an average of 15, his second-worst performance ever in a two-game bilateral series in the Asian subcontinent. It was also his fourth-worst show with the bat in a series overall.
Calling Virat Kohli's dismissals as “unacceptable”, Rajkumar Sharma said that he should have shown a bit more intent, especially at the start of his innings, something he claimed led to his downfall in the Bangladesh capital.
“A batter is quite disappointed after he gets out, and Virat Kohli is very aggressive by nature,” Rajkumar Sharma told India News.
“But the way he has been getting out is not acceptable. It's unfortunate to see a batter of his stature struggle against Bangladeshi spinners. He should have shown more intent,” Rajkumar Sharma added.
“With both the mid-on and mid-off fielders inside the circle, he could have played a bit more freely. Unless you unsettle a spinner, he is not going to let you play. You need to do something innovative like playing a slog sweep or sweeping an outside off ball,” Rajkumar Sharma summed up.
When the Test series in Bangladesh began, Virat Kohli was expected to bring an end to his long wait for a ton in whites, having last made a hundred in the longest version of the sport against the same team in 2019, in India's maiden Day-Night Test at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
However, after leaving the pavilion for a score of 1 in his final innings of 2022 on Saturday, Virat Kohli finished the Bangladesh series with only 45 runs in four knocks.
With his cheap dismissal at the hands of Mehidy Hasan Miraz in the fourth innings of the second Test against Bangladesh, Virat Kohli equaled his worst-ever run in the five-day version of the game, having not scored a fifty in his last 10 innings.
The only previous time the former India captain recorded such numbers was in 2014, when he could only make 134 runs during a terrible tour of England when James Anderson made him his bunny. Virat Kohli left the shores of the United Kingdom with an average of 13.40 in five Tests.
His last 10 knocks in Tests have been pathetic, to say the least, and his scores in all these innings read as 1 & 24 vs Bangladesh in the second Test, 19* & 1 vs Bangladesh in the first Test, 20 & 11 vs England, 13 & 23 vs Sri Lanka in the second Test, 45 vs Sri Lanka in the first Test and 29 vs South Africa in the second essay of the third Test.
Leaving aside a hundred, his last half-century in Test cricket came in the Cape Town Test against South Africa in the first innings, which was also his final match as the national team's skipper. Kohli had scored a well-compiled 79 off 201 deliveries at the time.
Virat Kohli was engaged in an ugly altercation with the Bangladesh cricketers after he got out cheaply in the second essay and even asked their skipper Shakib Al Hasan to discuss with him after it appeared that one of the opposition players had said something nasty to him while celebrating his wicket.
The legendary Sunil Gavaskar claimed that the reason behind the Bangladeshi players having a go at Virat Kohli was his and Mohammed Siraj's celebrations after Litton Das got out in the first Test at Chattogram.
“In the first Test, something happened when Litton Das put his hand to his ear and said something to Siraj. He got out two balls later. I wasn't there but I read about it. Kohli and Siraj also tucked their hands behind their ears to mimic Siraj,” Sunil Gavaskar opined.
“These things happen. Litton Das is one of Bangladesh's foremost batters so India were delighted with his wicket. Now you know Virat Kohli is the best batter in the world. So getting his wicket and the fact that he had done the thing in the first Test, it's not easily forgotten,” Sunil Gavaskar said.
Virat Kohli will return to India and be back in action against Sri Lanka next month when the islanders will visit the subcontinental superpowers for a T20I and ODI series.
The three-match T20I series between India and Sri Lanka will kickstart at the iconic Wankhede Stadium in the country's financial capital, Mumbai, on January 3.
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