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Virat Kohli's long-running drought with the bat continues to evoke strong criticism from several quarters. The former India captain has been slammed right, left, and center by a battery of former cricketers who believe that Virat Kohli's run of mediocre form has now become a liability for the team and he can't carry on like this forever. Ex-India pacer Karsan Ghavri too has weighed on the debate and acknowledged that Virat Kohli's position in Team India would be in trouble if he failed to score runs in the remaining T20Is and three ODIs against England.
Notably, Virat Kohli has failed to score a hundred since November 2019 when he smashed his 70th ton in international cricket in the historic Pink-ball Test against Bangladesh in Kolkata.
His form has continued to head south this year, with a string low of scores and three golden ducks being the many blots of his Indian Premier League (IPL) display.
Overall, he could only manage to score 341 runs with an underwhelming average of 22.73 in 16 games for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the elite T20 competition.
After having a disastrous IPL, Virat Kohli made only 31 runs in his two innings against England in the recently concluded fifth and final Test at Edgbaston.
While Karsan Ghavri accepted that Virat Kohli is a great player, his previous record cannot guarantee him a place in Team India's playing XI, especially in the T20Is.
Karshan Gavri also spoke about the possibility of Virat Kohli not being included in the national team for the T20 World Cup in Australia later this year.
“Virat Kohli is such a great player for India but unfortunately for the last two years, we have seen him getting caught behind or caught in the slips while chasing the delivery outside the off stump. He has to look at this and improve. He has to restrict those shots because if he keeps going like this and getting out and not getting runs, there comes a question mark – why is he not scoring?” Karsan Ghavri told Jagran TV.
“He has to prove his form in the current series. These days you can't play for long riding on your name. Virat is a great player but only his name will not work. He has to perform and score runs. This is how it goes. Everybody understands that he is going through a rough patch and it happens with every player. He has the hunger for runs, hunger for success in his heart but his personal form is quite disappointing,” Karsan Ghavri added.
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“Age has got nothing to do with sports as long as you are fit enough to compete. But if you are not doing well and you are 35, then people will start questioning you,” he pointed out.
Karsan Ghavri, however, isn't the first former Indian cricketer who doesn't want to see Virat Kohli on the flight to Australia.
Earlier, a similar proposal came from Wasim Jaffer who said that Virat Kohli was no longer a certainty in India's scheme of things in T20Is.
“Kohli plays, there’s no doubt about it but his form will be taken into consideration. His IPL strike rate hasn’t been great. He’s not been in the best of forms. Deepak Hooda can give you an option with bowling so that will be taken into consideration but not straightaway. I’d say Kohli will get an opportunity to play a few matches and then probably selectors will take a call but I don’t think he’ll be a certainty because so many young players have done so well. In the last T20 World Cup, the strike rate, that approach, was questioned and I think we need to keep looking at the future,” Wasim Jaffer told ESPNCricinfo.
“I’m not gonna sit here and say ‘leave Kohli out’. I’d be wanting that if I was in the England side. It’s a big decision to make. India have got so many good players coming through their system but Kohli’s got to come in. What do they say, form is temporary, class is permanent,” Wasim Jaffer added.
Alarm bells are already ringing for Virat Kohli as recent reports in the Indian media suggest that the national selectors are on the verge of dropping him from the national T20I side if he fails to get going in the limited-overs leg of the tour against England.
“He has been a great servant of the Indian cricket. Without doubt one of the best. But his struggle for form and runs is now alarming. Selectors need to select people on form not on reputation. I am no authority but he needs to get his groove back soon. Perform or Perish has to be a way forward on him. I guess selectors will look for options before the T20 World Cup if he don’t get runs in England”, a top BCCI official told the local press on Thursday.
