Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra questioned that there is slight pressure on Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli while heading into the three-match Test series against New Zealand. Both Kohli and Rohit had a mundane two-match Test series against Bangladesh.
While Rohit returned with scores of 6 and 5, Kohli registered scores of 6 and 17 in the opening Test match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai. Furthermore, Kohli managed scores of 47 and 29* in the second Test at Kanpur whereas Rohit scored 23 and 8.
“Is there slight pressure on Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli because the last Test series was extremely ordinary according to their standards? The next Test series is the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, so you want to score runs and move forward,” Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.
Chopra acknowledged that Kohli was among the runs in the second Test but he wasn’t at his absolute best.
“Although Virat Kohli scored runs in the last innings, when we talk about the Kanpur Test, but the flow wasn’t seen. The dominance, silken touch and rhythm you expect from Virat Kohli wasn’t seen,” he observed.
“He is not playing a lot of cricket. Generally, you come after playing consistently, play T20s in the middle, so the rhythm is maintained. You have left T20s. You played only ODI cricket in Sri Lanka. That was in August first week and after that, nothing in August and the entire September, and now October, and a lot of runs have not been scored,” Chopra noted.
Meanwhile, Kohli has all the experience of playing at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium for Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Chopra added no one knows Bengaluru’s pitch better than Kohli.
“You are out of rhythm at times as you lack game time. There can’t be a better place than this if you want game time. We generally make good pitches in Bengaluru, a good pitch will be expected, and who knows the Bengaluru pitch better than Virat Kohli? So the expectation is that Kohli will score runs because we all want him to score runs,” he said.
The reputed commentator added that there won’t be any external pressure on Rohit and Virat but the veteran duo will want to perform at their best.
“I am not saying there is any pressure. However, the pressure you put on yourself is there, that he needs to score runs if he is playing, and his own standards are very high. The same goes for Rohit Sharma. The last series was not good and for some strange reason, his record against Bangladesh is not good,” Chopra observed.
India will take on New Zealand in the opening Test at Bengaluru from October 16 onwards.
