"I said it would be difficult, but not impossible" - Former Pakistan pacer defends his comments on Virat Kohli
Former Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Asif had made a bold statement about Virat Kohli when the star Indian batter was going through a rough patch of form in 2022. He also wasn't scoring many runs for the Royal Challengers Bangalore last season.
During IPL 2022, Asif's comments raised quite a few eyebrows. He felt that it would be difficult for Kohli to reach the heights that he did in his prime and overcome the slump.
Speaking on CoverDriveCricket's YouTube channel, Mohammad Asif explained the technicalities behind his reasoning for the statement on Virat Kohli, saying:
"Kohli is a bottom-handed player. He is doing well because of his fitness and it is supporting him. The moment he will face a decline, I don't think Kohli can make a comeback."
However, Virat Kohli did eventually find his form in the Asia Cup where he scored his maiden T20I hundred. The former Indian captain took that form to the T20 World Cup too to end his century drought in ODIs.
Asif was reminded of his statement when he was recently a guest on Salman Butt's YouTube channel. The former pacer defended his comments back then by saying:
"I said that it would be difficult, but not impossible. For a bottom-hand player, at the age of 31 or 32, it is difficult to make a strong comeback. Upper-hand players are a little more fluent, even if they have a bad patch, they can recover.
"Players like Sachin (Tendulkar), Babar (Azam) find it more easy to make a comeback due to this reason. Kohli is my favorite player and I really enjoy his batting."
Virat Kohli's low scores continue in Tests
While Virat Kohli seems to have found his mojo again in white-ball cricket, he still hasn't been able to break his century drought in Tests. On a tough pitch in Indore in the third Test, Kohli did get to 22 but was unable to convert it into a big score.
India got bundled out for just 109 in the first innings of the ongoing third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series.