India's captain for the first Test of the two-match series against Bangladesh, KL Rahul gave an apt reply to a journalist who questioned him about senior batter Virat Kohli’s form in red-ball format ahead of the first match which begins in Chattogram from December 14 onwards.
Virat Kohli finally broke his run of poor form since 2019 and returned back to scoring runs and centuries in white-ball formats. He scored his maiden T20I ton against Afghanistan in Asia Cup 2022 and then played an all-time great knock in India’s win over Pakistan in T20 World Cup 2022 and had a very good tournament, finishing as the highest run-getter with four half-centuries.
Most recently, he scored his 72nd international and 44th ODI ton against Bangladesh in the third and final match of the series which India won by 227 runs in Chattogram itself.
KL Rahul appeared in a press conference two days before the 1st Test against Bangladesh and was asked by a journalist if he is worried with Kohli's poor form, to which he had a rather classy response.
The journalist asked: “Virat hasn't had a particularly good year as far as red-ball cricket is concerned. We all know how great a player he is. Now that he has got a T20 century and a hundred in the ODIs as well, do you think his 'poor form' is behind now?"
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To this, KL Rahul replied: "We haven't really played too much Test cricket for you to pass that statement. He has been in good form; he has done really well for us in T20 cricket. Recently, he got that hundred against Bangladesh here. Obviously, he will take some confidence into the Test matches as well."
In 2022, Kohli played four Tests, scoring 220 runs with one half-century – 79 against South Africa in Cape Town, which ended up being his final match as India captain. His form tapered off after that match and his last Test outing was against England in the rescheduled fifth Test, in which he made 11 and 20.
Kohli roared back into form after he took a month’s break missing the tours of West Indies and Zimbabwe and since then has been amongst runs regularly.
"He's been around for so long. He is such an experienced player. His mindset, his passion for the team has always remained the same, the commitment that he gives for the team, it's been on show for everyone to see, you can't really question that. He is a great player and has always found a way to get runs and do the job for his team and I am sure he will do that again," Rahul added.
Virat Kohli will have a huge role to play in the two-Test series against Bangladesh, especially in the first match due to the absence of Rohit Sharma.
(Hindustan Times inputs)
