Indian batting stalwart Virat Kohli has come under severe criticism for his string of low scores in the recently held Border-Gavaskar Trophy Down Under.
Apart from his second innings hundred (100) at Perth, Kohli managed to accumulate only 90 runs in his other eight innings combined.
The age-old problem of fishing outside the off stump led to Kohli’s downfall, with the likes of Scott Boland, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc exploiting his weakness.
After India’s 1-3 drubbing at the hands of Australia, many critics have raised a question over Kohli’s place in the Test side while quite a few social media users dragged his actor-wife Anushka Sharma's name as well.
Speaking on Sports Tak, former Indian cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu slammed such fans. He also asked Kohli to keep his head down and focus on performance.
"You know, someone's bad form has come, for two months. You can't delete it. The services he's been performing for so long, I know that you cannot rest on your laurels. You have to refresh them with new ones. But you have to give allowance. Mark Taylor kept failing for one and a half years. Persistent. Azharuddin kept failing. Ganguly failed eight innings. And he said, I can fail in 8 innings, but it takes just one innings for me to come back," said Sidhu.
"Six months ago, you both won the World Cup. Right? And now, all the cricket is one-day cricket. Rohit Sharma won the World Cup. Virat Kohli won the World Cup. You will only have faith in both of them. And the rest... Tell me. The other five were the top players who played Kookaburra Red Ball. Right? Who showed consistency? It's a team game. Blaming is the easiest thing. It's easy to hit stones. But some people make their homes from the stones that the world hits."
Sidhu further stressed that it is wrong to bring in the cricketers' family to troll the stars. "These are such people. This is not the first time that Virat Kohli has been in crisis. This is not the first time that his wife is dragged in between. Right? This is wrong. We must learn to respect our heroes. Have some patience. And, I mean, you will understand. Look, the darker the night, the brighter the star. So I think that these were three eras. And in these eras too, everyone had a bad time," he remarked.
It remains to be seen if Virat Kohli gets the backing of the selector after a disastrous 2024 season, where he averaged only 24.52 in 10 Tests. Kohli's career average in the longest format has now slumped to 46.85 after 123 matches.
