New Delhi: Former Indian spinner Maninder Singh has suggested Virat Kohli to spend time more time on English pitches as they are completely different from the ones at home. Kohli hasn’t had the best of times with the bat in international cricket over the last 24 months not scoring a single century.
The India skipper only notched a number of half-centuries and managed the highest score of 42 in the current series against England. His last Test century came in November 2019, during the Day-Night Test against Bangladesh.
“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,” Maninder said.
While he failed to make a mark in the first two Tests against England at Lord’s, at Headingly, Kohli once again fell to James Anderson for just seven from 17 balls. This was the seventh time Kohli was dismissed by Anderson in Test cricket.
“He needs to spend some time there as 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, they you can carry on playing your shots,” the former cricketer added.
“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.”
He further added that Kohli is making the same technical and mental mistakes on the current tour, which he made in 2014 in England, and he needs to take inspiration from how he played in the country in 2018 to bounce back.
“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 138 runs in 10 innings.
“I think things start coming back – am I playing the wrong line? Should I be leaving these balls?” Singh further stated. “All these Indian boys, in the first two Tests, they were leaving balls outside the off stump. I don’t know what 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,” he signed off.
