Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra analyzed Virat Kohli's game on Monday, stating that the former skipper should be "an enforcer" rather than "an accumulator" of runs and that adapting to new white-ball skipper Rohit Sharma's style of cricket will 'liberate' him as a batter.
Aakash said on Star Sports' 'Game Plan,' prior to the three-match ODI series between India and the West Indies, that Kohli isn't going through a tough patch despite not being at his destructive best in recent times.
He went on to say that, unlike cricket legends Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, he wants Kohli to be an enforcer rather than merely a scorer.
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"From a personal and individual standpoint, you want to convert those 50s into 100s because you’ve got to save something for the rainy days as well. He’s not going through a bad patch of form, so to speak, in terms of runs, but when you see him bat, you don’t see the same Virat Kohli.
He’s not imposing, he’s not dominating, he’s still scratching around, he’s scoring those runs and that’s what all great players do – we saw Sachin, Rahul – we’ve seen them accumulate runs, but he’s (Virat Kohli) not an accumulator, he’s an enforcer but he’s not there yet," he said.
The veteran cricketer is also looking forward to seeing how Rohit Sharma, the new ODI skipper, will "stamp his authority" in the upcoming series, as well as how Kohli will adapt.
Kohli would be 'liberated' by being part of a fresh set-up and ideology, according to Aakash, because the duty of the captain is now off his shoulders.
“But the one thing I actually want to see, is now Rohit Sharma will have his stamp of authority and the brand of cricket that he wants to play. Virat Kohli has to be a part of the same philosophy. And once you have a different philosophy in place, sometimes it just liberates you, because you are not really thinking about, ‘Ok, I need to score or I need to do this.
This is what all of us have to do together.’ And that is what I am waiting to see, whether it unleashes and liberates Virat Kohli, no matter you get out on 50 but score that 50 off 55 balls, don’t worry about scoring a century, finishing games off, as a captain, you’ve done it all this while. It’s no longer your only job, your job description has changed a little,” he explained.
The ODI series will kickstart from February 6th, all the matches are scheduled to take place at the Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad.
