The former Indian skipper and star batter Virat Kohli’s lean patch has been the most discussed topic in Indian cricket for the last few months. The well-established player has gone without scoring a hundred in nearly 3 years. With each passing day, haters pass messages on social media regarding the selection of the player in the squad.
Virat Kohli has been rested for a month after the England series and excluded from the Zimbabwe and West Indies series. But he is there in the squad for the Asia Cup 2022.
Now, all eyes are set on Asia Cup as Kohli has been given the opportunity to prove himself on the field to continue playing for the country. Many are in doubt about the 33-year-old’s performance in the upcoming match as he didn’t have many records in the previous matches.
But the majority, including the Indian and international players, believe that Virat Kohli will surely come back for the game. Dealing with the pressure is not easy for him now. But the exceptional player is filled with self-belief. While playing at the highest level, every player faces this kind of pressure. They want to shield themselves from the outside world and just focus on the game.
Prior to the Asia Cup 2022, the right-handed batter sent out a strong message to the haters.
“I know where my game stands and you cannot run this far in your international career without having the ability to counter situations and counter conditions and counter different kinds of bowling. So, this for me, is an easier phase to process, but I don’t want to put this phase behind me,” Kohli told Star Sports.
Kohli is the third-highest run scorer in Asia Cup and he knew where his game stood. He believes that this is an easy phase to process.
Rashid Khan reveals how he was shocked by Virat Kohli’s training session
Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan was amassed of Virat Kohli’s practice session. He recalled an incident during a net session while he was playing in the IPL. He noticed Kohli batting for around 3 hours.
“During IPL, I saw him during nets. I started noticing the time he would spend training. He batted for 2.5-3 hours. I was shocked. We had wrapped our practice session but he was still there and batting. He then scored runs against us as well,” Rashid Khan said.
Rashid Khan doesn’t think that Virat Kohli is out of form. Instead, he thinks that the fans are expecting high on the batter as he’ll score a century in every 2 matches.
“Whenever he plays, his shots never indicate that Kohli is out of form. In my view, he’s not out of form. See the expectations are quite high. People expect that after every two matches, Kohli will score a hundred. If you look at his Test innings, he has battled tough moments and then he has scored 50s, 60s and 70s before being dismissed,” Khan said.
“People would call any normal batter to be in the form of his life. He has raised expectation to such a level that people expect him to score a century,” Khan added.
Rashid had a chance to speak to him during the IPL and he says that Kohli is not at all worried about what others think of him.
“I spoke to him during IPL. He’s never been the one to be concerned about what others think of him. It’s an example for us the way he prepares. The way he prepares, we are motivated and train harder,” Rashid said.
In addition to that, he says, every player will go through the same phase at some point in their career.
“There comes a time in a player’s career when things don’t turn out the way you want them to be. So, as a cricket fan, we all want him to play well and score big. He’s in form. The only thing is expectations from him are quite high and with time he’ll start scoring again,” he said.
Asia Cup will be a hunting ground for Virat Kohli to silence all his fans and critics and get back to the team as the powerful right-hander in the Indian batting line-up.
Fantasy Cricket League – Everything is Cricket Here!
Fantasy Premier League - Let's gear up for Sporting!
