"All greats go through this phase, Ricky Ponting also struggled against spin in India" - Zaheer Khan defends Virat Kohli
Zaheer Khan has rallied behind Indian skipper Virat Kohli despite his poor run of form in the ongoing Test series against England. The former pacer said that "all greats" including Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting have gone through such bad phases in their careers for a variety of reasons and Kohli, too, will analyze his mistakes and come out of it soon.
Virat Kohli scored 7 in India's first innings at Headingley. He started well but instead of building the innings, went for an early expansive stroke against James Anderson, only to give the wicketkeeper an easy edge. The knock pushed Kohli's total runs in the series to 69 from four innings, tellingly equal to pacer Mohammed Shami.
In an interaction with Cricbuzz after the first day's play, Zaheer Khan said:
"It's not like this is happening with just Virat Kohli. All the long-time players and greats we have seen in the past decade have gone through this. If you see Sachin Tendulkar or Ricky Ponting when he came to India and struggled against spin... every batsman goes through this phase where there are problems against a particular bowler, conditions or when someone makes technical adjustments."
He added:
"I believe this is just a phase and there's no doubt that he (Virat Kohli) will be doing all the analysis to find what exactly he can do to get that hundred or a big score as soon as possible and everything falls in place."
The middle order collapsed after Virat Kohli's wicket and the Indian innings was shot down for just 78 - their third-lowest total while batting first in Tests.
In reply, England took advantage of the heavy roller and put up 120 runs on a more settled surface, plundering a 42-run lead without losing any wickets.
"Virat Kohli thinking just about runs instead of how you have to get those runs" - Zaheer Khan
Zaheer Khan also talked about Virat Kohli's repetitive dismissals outside the off-stump. He observed that the skipper is 'anxious' about scoring runs instead of focussing on the process and therefore making the same mistakes. He explained:
"There are certainly some small issues that need to be probed, which only he himself can do because the runs he has made so far have been because he has evolved his game through advice, practice and analysis. Secondly, when there are so many expectations from you and you go through such a patch, it's possible you get very anxious. This means you are thinking just about runs instead of how you have to get those runs."
Zaheer added:
"I'll speak from a bowler's perspective - you sometimes want to bowl quick and forget about the rhythm. But that rhythm and biomechanics of the body are very crucial because when those are right, you don't force yourself to bowl fast, it happens on its own. The same goes with batting, that flow and timing are very important."
India will start Day 2 on the backfoot but considering the history of Headingley and the ability of the visitors' bowling attack, England will have to be relentlessly good to hold on to their advantage.