“One of your best batsmen has been struggling for the last five years” - West Indies legend has an advice for out-of-form Virat Kohli
Legendary West Indies fast bowler Andy Roberts recently commented on Team India's ace batter Virat Kohli's underwhelming red-ball form. He emphasized that the former captain has been struggling in the longest format for almost five years.
Kohli's form was under the scanner in the build-up to the ongoing Border-Gavasksar Trophy series against Australia. He showed glimpses of his vintage self with an unbeaten 100-run knock in the opening fixture at Perth. However, he registered scores of 7 and 11 in the subsequent Adelaide pink ball Test.
Roberts urged Kohli to concentrate on Test cricket if he wants to get out of his rut. During a chat with Mid-Day, the former pacer said:
"I don’t know if there will be a revival after the Adelaide defeat, but get your batting right. One of your best batsmen of all-time has been struggling for the last five years.
"He needs to be focused on the longer version of the game. You will get runs and score heavily in Test cricket only when you are fully focused on the longer form. The standard of Test cricket is not the same. The top batsmen look as if they are struggling."
Many experts backed Virat Kohli to regain his mojo in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, given his stellar record on Australian soil. However, with three failures in four innings, the veteran batter is in desperate need of a turnaround.
"He will have to forget this at the earliest" - Cheteshwar Pujara on Virat Kohli's twin failures in Adelaide Test
Indian batter Cheteshwar Pujara believes Virat Kohli must not think about his back-to-back failed outings with the bat in the recently concluded Adelaide Test.
He pointed out how the Australian pacers consistently targeted Kohli's weakness by bowling outside the off stump. Suggesting that the 36-year-old must forget his failures and focus on the upcoming Test, Pujara said on Star Sports:
"He will have to forget this at the earliest. Somewhere or the other, the slight weakness he has outside the off-stump where he gets out many times, the Australian bowlers kept bowling in the same channel and exploited that weakness.
"Virat Kohli will just have to keep in mind that the way he batted in Perth, he made a big score, it will be expected from him that he plays a similar knock in Brisbane, but for that, when you have a failure, you have to emerge from it, forget it quickly and focus on the next match."
Australia won the Adelaide Test by 10 wickets to level the five-match series 1-1. The third Test will be played in Brisbane from December 14.