Former Indian coach and current member of the cricket advisory committee, Madan Lal has hit out at Virat Kohli’s detractors for trying to suggest that the Indian skipper should tone down his aggression. Kohli did not have an entirely memorable tour of New Zealand and towards the end of the series, he snapped out at a journalist over his on-field send offs.
“I don’t understand why people in India are asking him to mellow down,” Lal told Times of India.
“First, everyone wanted a very aggressive captain and now you want Kohli to stop his aggressive streak. I love the way he is on the field. Earlier, people used to say that Indians are not aggressive; now that we’ve become aggressive people question that and ask why we are so aggressive. I enjoy Kohli’s aggression; we need a captain like him,” he further added.
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He also went on to add that a loss in form for any player is part and parcel of the game, but despite the bleak series in New Zealand, Kohli remains the best player in the world.
“He was out of form. You can say it was a loss of confidence. That (series against New Zealand) doesn’t take anything away from him. He is still the world’s best player. At times, technical flaws come in and you then try harder and harder but still you don’t come out of it. It happens to the best of players,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}“He was out of form. You can say it was a loss of confidence. That (series against New Zealand) doesn’t take anything away from him. He is still the world’s best player. At times, technical flaws come in and you then try harder and harder but still you don’t come out of it. It happens to the best of players,” he added.
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It was not a very good Test series for India in New Zealand and after the loss, captain Kohli spoke about the failure of the batsmen to score enough runs for the bowlers to apply pressure.
“I think it was a matter of not having enough intent in the first game. We played well in the first innings here with the bat. It was a combination of us not having the right kind of execution and New Zealand playing well. Batsmen didn’t do enough for the bowlers to attack. It’s disappointing as a side when the batsmen don’t back up the effort of the bowlers,” he said.