Former Australian pacer Brett Lee feels Virat Kohli can take a break, rejuvenate himself and work on a few things after his prolonged lean patch as a batter.

Kohli endured a dismal IPL 2022 campaign with the willow. He batted in 16 innings this season, amassing just 341 runs at an average of 22.73 and a strike rate of 115.98 with only two half-centuries.

"Do I say it is a concern, I do. I would like him (Kohli) to be scoring more runs of course," Lee told PTI on Saturday (May 28).

In Qualifier 2, the veteran RCB batter got out for just 7 while chasing a delivery from pacer Prasidh Krishna wide outside the off-stump.

"The hardest thing is when Virat Kohli doesn't score runs, generally the team doesn't do well. When we see Kohli had that purple patch, when he got 800-900 runs in that season (IPL 2016) his team (Royal Challengers Bangalore) fared pretty well. We want more from Kohli.

"A strong Kohli is a strong team. Unfortunately he missed out in the semis; he could not get his team to cross the line of his own bat, getting less than 10 runs.

"Maybe (it is) a chance for Kohli to go back and try work on a few things and maybe just have a rest from cricket. Just get away and just freshen up the mind," added Lee.

Virat Kohli has been rested for the upcoming five-match T20I series against South Africa, starting June 9.

He will now return to action during the one-off Test against England, which will be played between July 1-5 at Edgbaston in Birmingham.

(With PTI inputs)