Former India all-rounder Ajit Agarkar said Virat Kohli has to discover his form with the bat quickly, where he hasn’t been at his best.
Kohli, the former India captain, has been going through a rough patch of form since 2019. He hasn’t recorded a century in international cricket since the pink-ball Test against Bangladesh. Coming to the ODIs, Kohli has six half-centuries in his last eight innings.
“At the end of the day you’re only as successful as your team is and if you don’t win, it eventually doesn’t matter how great a player you are out on the field, it does not enjoy playing in the team.
“We talk about different combinations before — Virat Kohli would be a key factor because of the kind of the player that he is but at the moment he isn’t at his best, which is a fact and the quicker he discovers his form it’s going to be that much easier for Rohit Sharma to then manage that thing because of what he (Virat) can do on his own.
“Virat Kohli’s form is a concern, but we all know what a player he is. So, hopefully, he discovers his form sooner rather than later,” said Agarkar on the Game Plan show on Star Sports.
Former India opener Aakash Chopra thinks Kohli has not been at his imposing self of late. “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.”
Chopra feels that now with Rohit Sharma becoming the white-ball captain, Kohli may have to adapt his game as per the philosophy of the new skipper. “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.”
India’s white-ball series against the West Indies begins with the three-match ODI series at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad from February 6. It will be followed by a three-match T20I series at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata from February 16.
