"Virat Kohli will need to come back to his basics"- childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma urges Kohli to come back to academy
Former Delhi Ranji Trophy cricketer and Virat Kohli's childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma has advised the former Indian captain to return to his roots in Delhi and work on his game to get back in top form.
Many were expecting Virat Kohli to finally get that elusive 71st international hundred in the Test series against Sri Lanka. However, the 33-year-old could only muster a high score of 45 in the series.
Speaking on the YouTube podcast 'Khelneeti', Rajkumar Sharma explained how well Virat Kohli has done in international cricket whenever he has returned to the academy and worked on his basics. He said:
"Virat will need to come back to his basics. I would definitely want him to come back to the academy. I was thinking about this from yesterday and I am going to talk to him. The kind of confidence that he gets batting in the academy, he needs it."
Virat Kohli is batting too cautiously: Rajkumar Sharma
Many believe that Virat Kohli was unlucky in the pink-ball Test in Bengaluru as he was trapped in front in both innings to a ball that kept low.
However, Rajkumar Sharma feels the 33-year-old should have batted a bit more aggressively and freely on such a rank turner. He opined:
"He is batting really well but unfortunately, he is batting too cautiously. If starts to bat a bit more freely, like he has his entire career then soon he will be back to his best. On such wickets you need to take more chances like Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer did."
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Former Indian wicketkeeper and selector Saba Karim was impressed with the way both Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer batted against Sri Lanka in Bengaluru.
Iyer scored half-centuries in both innings, while Pant broke Kapil Dev's record to become the fastest Indian to score a Test fifty.
These knocks reminded the 54-year-old of former England star Kevin Pietersen's magnificent century on a similar rank turner in Mumbai in 2012. He stated:
"Shreyas Iyer has shown a lot of flexibility in his approach. He realised that the only way to score runs on such a track was to have a positive approach.
"It reminded me of Kevin Pietersen's hundred in Mumbai. Such attacking shots give a lot of confidence to the players like Iyer and Pant and that's why they get a lot of opportunities to score runs."
It will be interesting to see what changes Virat Kohli makes to his game to break the jinx and get to that elusive 71st international hundred.