India 'A' coach Rahul Dravid defends Virat Kohli
Indian Test team captain Virat Kohli may have not been at his best in the recent Test match against Australia 'A' but he has surely impressed Rahul Dravid with his commitment towards cricket.
Former Indian skipper Dravid, as reported in Cricbuzz, said that Kohli is keen on improving and is working hard at the nets.
"Virat had not played for over a month before coming here. I think he has spent a good amount of time in the middle. Virat is very keen to perform and is working hard at the nets, he can only work with the team he has got and focus on getting the best out of them," Dravid said.
Sometimes things will not go well and sometimes it will. It was great for him to come in and play a game here. The time he spent here will do him a world of good. He is keen, excited and looking forward towards doing well."
Dravid elaborated on Kohli's approach towards cricket by saying he is very expressive and should not change that one thing. He commented that there are no big issues with Kohli's batting and he just needs some time.
"You need to be who you are. The beauty of this game is that it allows different people to succeed. Most people who succeed over a period of time are aggressive. They show it differently. Some are more expressive and some are not. Virat is expressive by nature and he should not curb this approach.
"I don't think there are any major issues with his batting. He needs a bit of confidence. Batting for some time in the middle will help him. Hopefully, he will get a chance to score runs in the practice match before the Test series against Sri Lanka and that will help him to get going," said Dravid.
Kohli took special permission from The Board of Control for Cricket in India to play in the second Test match for India 'A' ahead of the Sri Lanka tour. He scored 16 and 45 runs in the first and second innings respectively. Talking about his innings, India 'A' coach Dravid said you can't judge the cricketer on a single game's performance, here we are preparing them for bigger innings.
"I wouldn't say it is a worry. We will have ups and downs but there is some exciting talent too. You can't judge them based on every single game. We will lose the odd game. Winning and losing an 'A' series is not the end of the world. You are actually preparing them for the international level. That is the goal.
"I have been quite happy to see some spin talent. Ojha (Pragyan) came back and bowled well. Shreyas Gopal has potential. Jayant Yadav is an exciting talent. There is Axar (Patel) and Karn (Sharma). So there is a group that is coming through. So it is not as it bleak as it seems. Same with batting. They can learn from this game and play better against South Africa."