Before the Asia Cup 2022, questions were raised over Virat Kohli’s place in the Indian T20I team as he was enduring an extended lean patch. However, the veteran batter silenced his critics by finishing the six-team tournament as the second highest run-getter with 276 runs to his name from five innings.
During the marquee event, Kohli also ended his much-talked-about century drought as he slammed 122* off 61 balls in India’s last Super-4 clash against Afghanistan.
After regaining his form in the Asia Cup, Virat continued his brilliance in the recently held T20I series against Australia. He slammed 63 off 48 balls in the third and final T20I, helping India clinch the series 2-1.
With the T20 World Cup 2022 around the corner, former New Zealand batter Ross Taylor believes that Kohli is peaking at the right time.
"I thoroughly enjoyed my time playing with Virat Kohli at RCB and I have thoroughly enjoyed watching his career as well. Players go through form drops and I don't think enough has been made about COVID-19. COVID has impacted a lot of people in a lot of countries. Smith, and Williamson, had had their struggles during COVID. Everyone just puts it down to form, they are so used to them scoring runs but when players aren't going to train as much or play as much cricket, they would not be able to get into the groove," Taylor told NDTV.
"Him coming back into form is no surprise to me, it was just a matter of when he scored that ton. He is in great form at the moment and he is peaking at the right time ahead of the World Cup. I think he looks like he is in a good space, he is going to score a lot of hundreds in the coming years, I hope," he added.
After retiring from international cricket earlier this year, the Kiwi legend released his autobiography titled "Ross Taylor Black and White", in which he had only good things to say about Rahul Dravid while also sharing the experience of going to Ranthambore Forest to see a tiger along with the current India head coach.
"Rahul Dravid is one of the nicest men I have met in cricket. I think in terms of Indian cricket, they are in very safe hands with Rahul Dravid. High integrity and great cricket knowledge and he knows what the modern player needs. With him at the wheel, there would be an ODI World Cup in India next year. They will definitely head into the tournament as one of the favourites," said Taylor.
"When you have played 450 games for your country, there are stories to tell. I got approached to do it a long time ago, I really enjoyed it. In Black and White, I played for New Zealand in black and white. I come from a mixed background. My mother is a Samoan and my father is a Kiwi. I am going to tell my story in black and white and the writing is in black and white. That's how I came about the title," he stated further while talking about his autobiography.
(With NDTV inputs)
