“It pains me to see him go through such a long gap without century”: Kapil Dev on Kohli’s poor form
Star Indian batsman Virat Kohli has been going through the worst form of his cricket career. Looks like God has finally answered the prayers of the bowlers all around the world. Kohli, who had made run-scoring look ridiculously easy, piled on runs year after year and got himself the much-deserved badge of the modern legend. But as time has passed, Kohli’s form declined and is currently struggling to score runs badly.
He last scored an international century in November 2019 and has been searching for a hundred since then. Kohli’s struggles didn’t leave him even in the recently concluded Indian T20 league 2022.
Former Indian captain Kapil Dev has stated that it is painful to see Kohli struggling like this and going through a century drought for so long.
“It pains me to see such a big player go through this a long gap (with regards to a century). He is like a hero to us. We never thought we would witness a player whom we can compare to Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar, and Virender Sehwag. But then they came and forced us to compare, and now since he hasn’t for the last two years, it is bothering me and all of us,” Kapil said on Uncut.
“I haven’t played cricket as much as Virat Kohli. But sometimes you may not have played enough cricket but you can look to figure things out. Either that, or we just cannot criticise such great players. We have played cricket and we understand the game and after that, they have to improve their thought process, not ours,” he explained.
The former World Cup winner further said that he would love Kohli to prove former cricketers like him wrong for criticizing his form. Dev believes that it’s the bat and the performance of the player that should speak to answer the critiques and nothing else.
“If you prove us wrong, we will like it. If you don’t score runs, we feel there is some fault. We just see one thing and that’s your performance. And if the performance is not there, don’t expect people to stay quiet. Your bat and your performance should speak, nothing else.”
Despite Kohli’s poor run of form, the Indian team will rely heavily on him to score some runs in the rescheduled fifth Test against England. Kohli will be up against his rival James Anderson with whom he’s had great battles on the field. Kohli would love to end the Anderson-Kohli battle on a high note by scoring against the legendary England seamer.
