India's seniormost players experienced rather contrasting fortunes in the second ODI against England in Cuttack. While captain Rohit Sharma suddenly returned to his best with a clinical 119 off 90 balls, Virat Kohli could score just five runs before falling to a brilliant delivery from Adil Rashid. Sri Lanka spin great Muttiah Muralitharan has said that he is confident of Kohli turning it around as well and that India will need both these batters to fire if they are to win the 2025 Champions Trophy.
"Definitely, because they are world-class players. Always say class is permanent (and) form is only temporary. So they will come to the (batting) form," Muralitharan is quoted as saying by PTI. "Rohit has scored a hundred and Virat will also will come to form. Definitely, they need to be in form in this tournament for India to win," he added.
Rohit and Kohli's forgettable form going into the series against England
Rohit was almost flawless in his knock on Sunday, which helped India make light work of a target of 305. India won the match by four wickets and confirmed a series win for themselves. Rohit's innings was in complete contrast to what he has gone through in the last six months where he struggled to score any kind of meaningful runs across formats. He finished the 2024/25 Test season with a scarcely believable average of 10.93 in a whopping 15 innings.
It was a similar story for Kohli, who fared slightly better than Rohit but failed miserably considering his lofty standards. Kohli averaged 22.47 in 19 Test innings in the 2024/25 Test season, despite scoring a century in the first Test against Australia in Perth. Both Rohit and Kohli hardly played any other form of cricket in the 2024/25 season and they both returned to the Ranji Trophy for Mumbai and Delhi respectively after a number of years. Both players failed to make an impact, with Rohit being dismissed for three and 28 against Jammu and Kashmir and Kohli falling for six against Railways.
{{/usCountry}}It was a similar story for Kohli, who fared slightly better than Rohit but failed miserably considering his lofty standards. Kohli averaged 22.47 in 19 Test innings in the 2024/25 Test season, despite scoring a century in the first Test against Australia in Perth. Both Rohit and Kohli hardly played any other form of cricket in the 2024/25 season and they both returned to the Ranji Trophy for Mumbai and Delhi respectively after a number of years. Both players failed to make an impact, with Rohit being dismissed for three and 28 against Jammu and Kashmir and Kohli falling for six against Railways.
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