"He is still scoring those ugly runs" - Aakash Chopra feels Virat Kohli might be liberated if Team India adopt an aggressive approach
Aakash Chopra believes Team India adopting a more aggressive approach under Rohit Sharma in ODI cricket might liberate Virat Kohli as a batter.
Kohli struck a couple of fifties in the recent ODI series against South Africa. However, he was not at his dominant best and could not convert those starts into three-figure marks either.
During a discussion on the Star Sports show Game Plan, Aakash Chopra highlighted that Kohli has looked scratchy in the middle of late. He explained:
"He [Kohli] is not imposing, he is not dominating. He is still scratching around, he is still scoring those ugly runs and that's what all great players do. We saw Sachin, we saw Rahul - we have seen them accumulate runs but he is not an accumulator, he is an enforcer but he is not there yet."
While observing that a century would be an important personal milestone, the cricketer-turned-commentator pointed out that it is more crucial for Kohli to be back to his fluent best. Chopra said:
"From a personal individual standpoint, you want to convert those fifties into hundreds because you want to save something for the rainy days as well. He is not going through a bad patch of form, so to speak in terms of runs, but when you see him bat, you see not the same Virat Kohli."
Most ODI runs since 2020 without a century
757: Shikhar Dhawan
676: Virat Kohli
670: Harry Tector
#SAvIND
Although Kohli has not scored an international century in more than two years, he has still amassed 676 runs at an excellent average of 45.06 in the 15 ODIs he has played since the beginning of 2020.
"Virat Kohli has to be a part of the same philosophy" - Aakash Chopra
Aakash Chopra added that Kohli will have to follow the team philosophy defined by Rohit Sharma going forward. He observed:
"The one thing that I actually want to see is now Rohit Sharma will have his stamp of authority and the brand of cricket that he wants to play, Virat Kohli has to be a part of the same philosophy."
The 44-year-old opined that an aggressive approach might just free up Kohli and bring the best out of him. Chopra explained:
"Once you have a different philosophy in place, sometimes it just liberates you because you are not really thinking about - I need to score, I need to do this, this is what all of us have to do together. That is what I am waiting to see, whether it unleashes and liberates Virat Kohli."
ODI cricket was at its peak when Virat Kohli used to dominate world cricket
That strike rate 💉 https://t.co/GJWQYeZ3hv
Aakash Chopra concluded by saying that Kohli's job description might change in such a scenario. He explained that rather than hitting centuries and finishing games off, scoring a fifty off 55 deliveries might be the expectation from the Indian batting stalwart.