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Virat Kohli's continuing struggles with the bat have become one of the most divisive topics in the world of cricket at the moment. While a section of cricketers, both past and present, have rallied behind him, others have called for his removal from Team India at the earliest. Surprisingly, support for Virat Kohli from across the border in Pakistan appears to be quite strong with numerous Pakistani cricketers backing him to come good soon. It all started with a tweet from present Pakistan skipper Babar Azam followed by Shoaib Akhtar's comments in Virat Kohli's favor on his official YouTube channel. Another Pakistan cricket star has joined Shoaib Akhtar and Babar Azam in throwing his weight behind Virat Kohli, and he's none other than Rashid Latif. What’s more, Rashid Latif even went on to compare Virat Kohli with former Pakistan captain Javed Miandad.
After returning to international cricket at the start of July, Virat Kohli has failed to make more than 20 runs in his five knocks across all formats for India.
Virat Kohli’s last appearance in India colors came on Thursday in the second ODI against England. But it turned out to be yet another disappointing outing for him as he played a reckless shot on a wide delivery bowled outside the off-stump by England speedster David Willey to lose his wicket for 16 at the iconic Lord’s in London.
The one major factor behind Virat Kohli's recent problems has been his front-foot play and several cricket pundits, including Saba Karim and Sunil Gavaskar, suggested that the Delhi-born player make some tweaks in his technique to overcome these challenges. Some have even advised the former India skipper to use his backfoot more, especially in tough conditions in England to improve his chances of regaining his lost touch.
Ex-Pakistan skipper Rashid Latif, however, thinks that Virat Kohli may not be giving much heed to such suggestions as he was quite similar to the legendary Javed Miandad in this aspect.
Throughout his career, Javed Miandad never relied on statistics and instead spent more and more time in practice to come through rough patches in his career.
Article Continues Below“Cricket, as a game, has become smarter with the arrival of data analysts. When Virat made his international debut, such things had just begun to arrive in the game. Not many people actually believed in it strongly. A big player like Javed Miandad had said that computers cannot help in cricket. I think Virat Kohli is very similar to Javed Miandad in that way,” Rashid Latif said on his official YouTube channel.
“When your days are good, you won't realise that bowlers are working out on finding your weakness. In modern-day cricket, things have changed. Everyone is finding out the batter's weakness. Babar, Rizwan, Virat… everyone has some weakness or the other. But they haven't changed their game,” Rashid Latif added.
Earlier, Shoaib Akhtar had hit out at Virat Kohli’s critics as he declared that making seventy centuries in international cricket wasn’t a joke, something the Indian batter had already achieved and that too in record time.
Shoaib Akhtar insisted that Virat Kohli was a modern-day great who would be back at his best soon because all he needed was one good knock in the middle.
“As a Pakistani, I’m supporting Virat Kohli because 70 centuries… it’s not Candy Crush. Only a great player can score these many centuries, a normal player can’t do that. When Virat Kohli comes out of this phase, it will be a different Virat Kohli. There are some things that he needs to work on,” Shoaib Akhtar said on his official YouTube channel.
“You need to forget your stint as captain now. Move on from that. Just focus on yourself as a batter. You can’t get runs? No problem. People are criticizing you? No problem. All of this will only make you stronger. You have to score 30 more hundreds. I have predicted 110 for you. You’re still young, you’re quite fit,” Shoaib Akhtar added.
According to Shoaib Akhtar, Virat Kohli looks anxious at the crease and appears to be in a hurry to score his runs. This is why he’s making one mistake after another in a bid to revive his batting across formats.
“Don’t be scared. Bowlers should know that they are going up against a strong guy. And you have been that person. Focus on yourself. Stay composed,” Shoaib Akhtar elaborated.
“You won’t get runs by hitting. You need to stay in the middle. There are some things which you might not be able to implement right now. But then, you’re not giving yourself time. You’re showing frustration. You can’t move past your rough patch this way. Stay calm, go off social media for a few days, forget the criticism,” Shoaib Akhtar pointed out.
