File photo of Virat Kohli.
Former Indian captain and legend Sunil Gavaskar slammed Virat Kohli for his poor form in ongoing England vs India 2nd Test being played at the iconic Lord's Stadium.
In the second innings on Sunday, Kohli has again disappointed with the bat after being dismissed for 20 runs. The Indian skipper lost his wicket while trying to play a wide delivery bowled outside off-stump by Sam Curran; resulting in an edge.
India were in trouble when Kohli came out to bat at 27/2 as they lost both of their openers cheaply. Gavaskar talked about Kohli's intent and explained why the experienced batsman is struggling.
"That method (batting technique that he changed after 2014) has been successful for him," said Gavaskar. "He has got 8,000 Test runs with that back and across the movement. But he is playing at deliveries way outside off stump and a little too early in the innings.
"This time around, the foot is somewhere else, the bat is somewhere else, which means that he hasn’t really played well. It could be about this much-talked-about word intent but in a five-day game, every batsman goes in to score runs.
"It’s the method that differs. When you talk about this 'trying to take this attack to the opposition' approach, and if that is what intent is, it can get you into trouble as we saw. I think every batsman should be left alone to find his own method," he added.
However, the 71-year-old batting great also said "this is a Test match" and the approach needs to be different.
"In ODI and T20I, it’s a completely different situation, but over here, what they need to look into is get themselves in and try to play in the old-fashioned. Play only when you have fought through," said Gavaskar.
