Kohli has scored 119 runs at an average of just 17.
Former cricketers Kevin Pietersen and Sunil Gavaskar on Saturday (23rd April) shared their views on Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) batter Virat Kohli’s poor form with the bat after another failure.
Kohli is certainly not having the greatest of time in the ongoing IPL 15. The right-hander has struggled and looked completely out of touch. He has 119 runs to his name at an average of just 17 in the eight games so far. He also bagged back-to-back golden ducks in RCB’s last two encounters. In their most recent encounter against SRH, he nicked one off of Marco Jansen to the second slip to worsen the case more.
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Many fans and pundits have raised concerns over Kohli’s form, especially with T20 World Cup 2022 around the corner. They feel that the right-hander needs a break to return to form and score runs like he used to do.
Speaking on Star Sports, Kevin Pietersen said that Kohli seems to be in a ‘dark place’ and he hopes that the former RCB skipper to come out of it as the game needs him to score runs.
“I think he is at point and having been at that point in my career on a couple of occasions, it is not nice. It is a very lonely, lonely place especially when you have all eyes on you. Every single thing is Kohli, Kohli and Kohli. He is in that dark place, I just hope it ends quickly because the game needs him to score runs,” Pietersen said.
Speaking on the same, Sunil Gavaskar said that it’s tough to analyse where Kohli is struggling as the right-hander had not even faced a dozen of deliveries in the last two matches and got out early.
Talking about his last two dismissals, Gavaskar said that Kohli has looked to get off an aggressive start but has struggled against the moving ball.
“It is tough to say anything when the man has not even faced a dozen deliveries. If you have faced at least a dozen deliveries then you get to see whether the feet are moving, whether the man is playing across the line or there is a technical area where you need to do something.
“The last two dismissals I can put down to the fact that he hadn't got the runs till then. Looking to get off to an aggressive start, and the ball has been moving so hence he has been dismissed," Gavaskar said.
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Gavaskar feels that skipper Faf du Plessis needs to have a word with Kohli and give him the confidence that he can score big runs if he plays first 8-10 overs safely.
"Therefore, it is question of somebody, may be Faf du Plessis, if they are sitting together and he is saying 'look, we know you can get runs, and you don't need to get the runs in the next over, you can get the runs over a period of 8-10 overs. If you stay there for 8-10 overs, maybe you will get 80, 90 or 100'," he said.
RCB suffered a thumping 9-wicket loss at the hands of Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Saturday. They are next slated to play Rajasthan Royals (RR) on Tuesday (26th April) at MCA stadium in Pune. They would be hoping for Kohli to return to form and win matches for his side.
(Star Sports inputs)