Virat Kohli’s form has been one of the biggest talking points in Indian cricket as “King Kohli” has faltered at every juncture in the last two and a half years. Virat Kohli’s last century in any format of the game came way back in November 2019 in a Test match against Bangladesh in Kolkata. Since then more than 100 games have passed and he’s yet to add to his total of 70 centuries in the international arena. In the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) last edition, Virat Kohli once again disappointed his fans, as he could only make 341 runs with a poor average of 22.73 in 16 games. Kohli’s run in the IPL was a horror show, to say the least as he registered three golden ducks in the same tournament for the first time in his career. His diminishing returns with the bat have prompted several former cricketers to take sides – while some have backed Virat Kohli to find his mojo back soon, others have slammed him for enduring a longer than expected drought of runs. The legendary Kapil Dev seems to have joined a group of Virat Kohli's critics as the former India captain has claimed that there's “some fault” in the 33-year-old star batter's batting.
“I haven't played cricket as much as Virat Kohli. But sometimes you may not have played enough cricket but you can look to figure things out. Either that, or we just cannot criticise such great players. We have played cricket and we understand the game and after that, they have to improve their thought process, not ours. If you prove us wrong, we will like it. If you don't score runs, we feel there is some fault. We just see one thing and that's your performance. And if the performance is not there, don't expect people to stay quiet. Your bat and your performance should speak, nothing else,” Kapil Dev said on the YouTube channel Uncut.
Kapil Dev believes that Virat Kohli's form is a big concern for Team India, especially at a time when captain Rohit Sharma and other senior members of the side are focusing on bringing the T20 World Cup back home from Australia later this year.
“It pains me to see such a big player go through this a long gap (with regards to a century). He is like a hero to us. We never thought we would witness a player whom we can compare to Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar, Virender Sehwag. But then they came, and forced us to compare and now since he hasn't for the last two years, it is bothering me and all of us,” Kapil Dev pointed out.
Unlike Kapil Dev who has been critical of Virat Kohli's batting performances of late, Australian legend Ricky Ponting had declared that the former India captain was too good a player not to come out of his ongoing batting slump.
“It (poor form) is going to happen to everyone at some stage. Virat’s probably had a 10 or 12-year run where hasn’t had many down times,” the former Australian captain said in an episode of the ICC Review.
Ricky Ponting, however, had left it to Virat Kohli to find out whether the flaw in his batting was technical or mental because as per the Tasmanian the star Team India player was the best man to find that answer.
“But there was a lot of talk and conjecture around the IPL about how tired and burnt out he might be. That’s for him to work out and assess and find ways to improve, whether it’s a technical thing or a mental thing. I’m sure, being the absolute professional that he is, that he’ll work it out and work it out pretty quickly,” he added.
Ricky Ponting also highlighted the fact that sometimes a cricketer is unaware of whether he has got burned out or not. Sometimes even a small niggle or a player’s state of mind could take a toll on his performance, which may be true for Virat Kohli as well.
“One thing I do know from experience is that quite often you bluff yourself as a player that you’re not actually tired, that you’re not physically or mentally tired. You always find a way to get yourself up for training, you always find a way to get yourself up for game. It’s not until you actually stop and have a couple of days do you realise how tired and fatigued you are,” Ponting said.
“So that might be exactly where Virat Kohli is at now, but I’m pretty sure he won’t stay down for too long,” the legendary cricketer concluded.
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