Indian captain Rohit Sharma was asked about Virat Kohli’s ho-hum form and the former once again put his weight behind the under-fire batter. Kohli was dismissed for only 16 runs off 25 balls in the second ODI against England at the Mecca of Cricket, Lord’s on Thursday as the visitors lost by a huge margin of 100 runs.
The talisman started his innings in a fine fashion as he hit a couple of stylish boundaries but once again the line outside off-stump led to Kohli’s downfall. David Willey got the ball to move away from the right-hander to produce the outside edge to Jos Buttler.
Kohli could not play the first ODI due to a groin injury and his wait for the 71st International hundred continued. However, Rohit Sharma said that Kohli has time and again proved his mettle and gave a reminder to all that the star batter has all the experience.
Sharma reiterated that the form of any player can go up and down and it is a phase that no player has eluded in his career. The Indian captain reckons Kohli is one good knock away from finding his purple patch again.
“He has played for so long, he has played so many matches, he is such a great batsman, so he doesn’t need reassurance,” said Rohit on Thursday (July 16). “I think in my last press conference I had told form keeps going up and down, I mean it is a part and parcel, whichever cricket player plays, it happens in everyone’s career. So a player who has played for so long, who has scored so many runs, who has won so many matches, he just needs one or two innings, that is what I think, I’m sure that is what everyone would think… whoever watches cricket. We know on this topic there are discussions, we have seen for so many years that performances of all players go up and down. But as I had said last time the quality of a player doesn’t become bad, I think we need to keep that in mind, the guy has scored so many runs, you look at his average, he has scored so many hundreds, he has the experience of it. Until now no player has come who has done well whenever he has played. So a bit of slump will come, it comes in everyone’s life..”
Meanwhile, India collapsed with the bat as they could only manage 146 runs on the board. The visitors were reeling at 31-4 and Rohit Sharma added that the lower middle order has to find a way to score runs when the top order hasn’t delivered, as they have found themselves in similar situations in the knockout matches of the ICC events. But India lost their last four wickets for only six runs.
“It is also a challenge for us when we lose 5-6 wickets, we need to learn how to score runs lower down the order, we need to focus on this thing as to how to improve our balance and improve our batting, because whatever the situation of the game, if you back yourself, then you will get runs. We can learn from England how they batted after losing five wickets, they scored 250 runs. We can learn from them how to play,” said Rohit.
The deciding ODI will be played at Emirates Old Trafford, Manchester on Sunday.
