Asia Cup 2022: There has been a lot of noise with regards to Virat Kohli for over two years now, the star Indian batter, who was the blue-eyed boy of the Indian cricketing team now finds himself in a slump that doesn't seem to end anytime soon. Virat scored his last international 100 in November 2019 and since then, he hasn't been able to live up to the expectations that he has set for himself and the fans. Kohli had a horror run in the 2022 UK tour where he couldn't score a total of 100 runs across three formats.
Legends like Kapil Dev and Venkatesh Prasad have asked the team management to look into this issue and send Kohli back to play domestic cricket where he can correct his flaws in silence and come back stronger. On the contrary to this Rohit Sharma has backed Virat and has said that he always prefers quality over quantity. The Indian skipper further added that it is just a matter of one day, and when Virat returns to form he will be an asset to the team. Virat Kohli was rested for the Caribbean trip due to workload issues and he now returns to the Indian setup for the Asia Cup which is like a dress rehearsal for team India ahead of the T20I World Cup which is scheduled to play in Australia later this year. Former Sri Lankan great and the head coach of Mumbai Indians Mahela Jayawardene has weighed on the matter and has said that Kohli will certainly come out of this slump as he has all the tools at his disposal to get through it.
"I believe Virat has the tools to come out of it. He has done that in the past as well and I'm sure he'll come through this. Class is permanent and form is temporary", said Jayawardene. He also addressed KL Rahul's issue who hasn't been able to play any kind of cricket after the IPL due to a groin injury. The former Sri Lankan skipper feels that Rahul hasn't spent that much time in the middle and has been away from the game for some time hence it wouldn't be easy for him to get going straight away. The Mumbai Indians coach also feels that India should open with Rishabh Pant as he gives the side a perfect balance at the top of the order.
"Even though he (Pant) hasn't done that (open the batting) much in domestic cricket, he can do that. Wherever he bats, you're not going to change his game. He is going to be a very natural player so yes, it is an option", added Jayawardene.
Team India squad:
Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul (VC), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Deepak Hooda, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan.
3 backups: Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Chahar, and Axar Patel
(Inputs from PTI)
