Ceaseless poor form and drought of runs have grappled Virat Kohli who has never looked so out of touch in batting. The Indian batter has failed to reach a single hundred in the last three years, awaiting his 71st century. The dipping form of Virat Kohli seems to be not working well with Indian cricket which has been struggling with a settled playing order, too. Virat Kohli gave up his captaincy ahead of the previous T20I World Cup hosted by BCCI in UAE. India fell out of the tournament after a heavy loss to New Zealand and Pakistan. After the exit from T20I World Cup, Virat lost his ODI & Test captaincy, too.
Indian men’s cricket team is presently playing T20I series against England in England and the absence of Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, and Rishabh pant fetched chances to Deepak Hooda, Arshdeep Singh who did a commendable job and are giving strength to the Indian side. Considering the form of Virat Kohli, former Indian cricketer and world cup winning skipper has requested the BCCI to not “go by reputation” of a player.
While talking to ABP News, Kapil Dev said, “Play in-form players when you have loads of options,” Kapil told ABP News. “You can’t just go by reputation, but you have to look for the current form. You can be an established player but that doesn’t mean that you will be given chances even if you fail five games in a row.”
He further continued, “Play in-form players when you have loads of options. You can’t just go by reputation, but you have to look for the current form. You can be an established player but that doesn’t mean that you will be given chances even if you fail five games in a row. I hope Kohli scores runs. And if there’s a [selection] challenge after that, it’s a big one. At the moment, Virat Kohli isn’t playing like the Kohli we know, the one that has made him a legend through his performances. “If he isn’t performing, you can’t continue to keep these boys [youngsters] out. I hope there’s a healthy fight for selection, the youngsters should look to outperform Kohli. But Kohli needs to think, ‘yes at one point I was a big player, but I need to play like that No. 1 player again’. That’s a problem for the team, it’s not a bad problem.”
Virat Kohli hasn’t been in a good form for a long time, now. Apart from Virat, the likes of KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah’s absence in the regular bilateral series too is a spot of bother. “You can call it rest; you can call it dropped. Every person will have his views,” he said. “If you [selectors] haven’t picked him, you can say we’ve rested the big players because they aren’t performing. Hooda’s performance will put pressure on Virat Kohli when he comes back,” he said. “You’ve got a guy who has done so well, performed consistently in the IPL and the T20Is as well. The pressure might bring out the best of Virat Kohli. The big guys who are missing, KL Rahul (after recovering from injury) and Virat, are going to come back. But India will be happy that they have got the guys to back them up. However, the approach needs to be similar. This is the brand of cricket they need to play if they want to dominate this format. This is something we would like to see from the main guys as well.”
