Indian captain Virat Kohli’s poor run of form continued in the ongoing England tour, as the right-hander has yet again surrendered to James Anderson for just 7 runs on Day 1 of the ongoing third Test on Wednesday (August 25) at Headingley, Leeds.
Before the start of the third Test against England at Headingley, Kohli had said at the virtual press conference that a batsman needs to keep their ego in their pockets to bat in the English conditions, and former India cricketer Maninder Singh said the skipper Kohli should himself practice what he preached.
He believes that Kohli needs to understand that England pitches are not like Indian pitches, and he needs to spend time in the middle before going for a drive on balls pitched outside off stump to get runs.
Maninder told ESPNCricinfo: “Before the Test match, Virat Kohli had said that in these English conditions you’ve got to keep your ego in your pocket. And I think that is absolutely right. If he tries to dominate, like Virat Kohli usually does, these are not the pitches where he can bat like that.”
He added, “He needs to spend some time there, like he did on the previous tour where he scored almost 600 runs. Once you know the pace and know how much the ball is seaming around, then you can carry on playing your shots. These are not flat Indian pitches, where you can just put your foot forward and start driving. And what Kohli preached, he will have to practice. Keep your ego in your pocket.”
The former spinner also pointed out that Kohli is making the same mistakes he made on the 2014 tour of England, and suggested the skipper should take inspiration from how he played in 2018 and scored around 593 runs to get back his rhythm with the bat in the ongoing five-match Test series.
Maninder said, “Virat Kohli is basically making the same mistakes that he was making on his first tour of England. He is playing away from the body. It could happen to you if you are not playing regular cricket. He got out a couple of times the same way as you did in 2014, when he just got a 138 runs in 10 innings. I think things start coming back - am I playing the wrong line? Should I be leaving these balls?”
He signed off by saying, “All these Indian boys, in the first two Tests, they were leaving balls outside the off stump. I don’t know that happened in this Test match. They were wanting to play at it and paid the price for it. With Virat Kohli, he is going through a bad patch.”
(ESPNCricinfo inputs)
