The cricketing community has been divided into two camps over Virat Kohli’s batting woes. While one group includes the legendary all-rounder Kapil Dev suggesting to drop the star batter if his poor form continues, the other group includes the likes of Ricky Ponting and Kevin Pietersen who believe that the veteran batter will return to form shortly.

Meanwhile, former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has stated that given Virat’s underwhelming form, he should play as many matches as he can to get back among the runs. Kohli was rested for the entire West Indies tour and was also not named for the Zimbabwe tour.

Virat had a forgettable outing in the England tour last month that began with him scoring 31 runs in both innings of the Edgbaston Test, continued with 12 runs in two T20Is, and ended with just 33 runs in three ODIs.

Manjrekar highlighted why India should have played its former captain in every match possible by using the example of veteran pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

“Bhuvneshwar Kumar recently gave an interview, and he is at his peak at the moment. Eighteen months back, we thought he may not have an international career. But, he has bounced back superbly and is a certainty to make the T20 world cup squad. And he said, the more I bowl, the more I got my rhythm," Manjrekar told SPORTS18 during an interview.

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The 33-year-old has had his breaks, according to Manjrekar. He argued that playing more games is the only way for any player to come out of a slump.

“If you look at the last two years, he's not played a lot of International cricket. Maybe there's some logic there that we don't know about. Maybe they had a chat with Virat Kohli, but my personal view is the more Virat Kohli would’ve played and especially these matches would've been better for him and Bhuvneshwar Kumar clearly has said like it is with a lot of players when you're going through a rut, the best way to come out of the rut is by playing. So, hopefully, that will happen soon," Manjrekar concluded.

Virat Kohli will next be seen in action in the Asia Cup 2022, which begins on August 27.

(SPORTS18  INPUTS)