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Cricket Players'Rahul bhai pointed it out during our chat in England': Ex-India bowler decodes Virat Kohli's bad patch
Virat Kohli's bad patch continued on Thursday, as he was dismissed on 16 off 25 balls. India eventually lost the game by 100 runs with England levelling the three-match series 1-1.
There are growing concerns over the form of Virat Kohli as the Indian batter failed again during the second ODI of the series against England. Kohli had missed the first match of the series due to a groin injury, and even as he made a positive start to his innings at Lord's on Thursday, Kohli eventually perished as he chased a delivery outside-off from David Willey, and nicked it for a simple catch for wicketkeeper Jos Buttler.
Kohli has been going through a rough patch over the past few months, and has failed to cross the 20-run mark across formats since his return to international cricket in the rescheduled fifth Test of the series against England. Kohli's form has drawn widespread attention with a host of former cricketers opining on the same, and on Thursday, India's Ex-spinner Pragyan Ojha recalled a discussion with Rahul Dravid to decode Kohli's struggles.
“I'll tell you about the mindset. I was very curious about how the batsmen think. I used to discuss this a lot. Once, I was having a discussion in England with Rahul (Dravid) bhai about this. He pointed out that there's a big difference between Indian/subcontinent players and English players,” Ojha began during a chat on Cricbuzz.
“In England, the batters usually get set on the crease while leaving the deliveries. In subcontinent, until the batter feels the ball on his bat, he won't get set. He won't get the satisfaction. I think this is happening with Virat Kohli.”
Ojha, then, explained that Kohli wouldn't be chasing the deliveries such as yesterday's from Topley when he would be in good form.
“He knows he is not scoring runs, and that is why he's probably chasing those deliveries. Earlier, he wouldn't be so desperate to chase such balls to score runs. Now, the situation has changed. Everyone is talking about him. You may switch-off as much as you want, but your mind keeps going back to it,” said the former India spinner.
Team India will return to action for the third and final ODI of the series on July 17 in Manchester. Kohli, then, will be on a break as he has been rested for both, ODIs and T20Is against West Indies.
