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'Even during IPL, you could tell...': Australia legend makes key Virat Kohli observation to predict his Asia Cup outing
The right-handed batter, who has relinquished captaincy in all the three formats, has also not scored a ton in over two years, something which his fans are yearning for.
All eyes will be on Virat Kohli as the former India skipper returns to competitive cricket after a good gap of over one month. Kohli had taken a break from sport after India's tour to England, which saw the talismanic cricketer fall cheaply on all the occasions he walked out to bat. The right-handed batter, who has relinquished captaincy in all the three formats, has also not scored a ton in over two years, something which his fans are yearning for.
Australia legend Shane Watson sharing his thoughts on the same stated that he expects a good outing from Kohli, claiming the long break would have benefitted the former India captain. "Having time off for him certainly, would (help him) just be able to regenerate mentally, physically, just be able to get away from the game of cricket," Watson said on the ICC Review Show.
Watson also touched upon Kohli's outing in the previous edition of Indian Premier League (IPL). Although Kohli finished as the second highest run-scorer from the Royal Challengers Bangalore camp, the performance was no where close to his standard. In fact he was out for golden duck on three occasion.
Watson felt that Kohli, despite the effort, was not at his best during the tournament. "You could just see that his energy was a bit sapped, even during the IPL. You could tell, no matter how much he tried – he was always up and about, but you could see the light was just out a tiny bit," he added.
Kohli's last assignment was the tour of England, where the batter could only gather 76 runs from six innings in all the format combined. "This month that he's had off cricket will make sure that that light's shining very bright going into this Asia Cup, knowing there's a T20 World Cup in Australia coming up very soon as well.
"So when you're able to have a break, and because the Indian cricketers in particular play so much cricket, for Virat to be able to have some time off, especially a month, that's just going to regenerate everything he needs to be able to take stock of what happened, freshen up mentally and physically," the former Australian cricketer said.
Watson is also optimistic about Kohli bouncing back to form. "He's too good not to be able to find his groove. It'll only take him a couple of balls, get into the battle again, and away he goes," he said.
India will open its Asia Cup campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan on Sunday.
