Virat Kohli is going through a slump and his scores prove it. With his average of 16.00 in nine matches so far in IPL, he is reminding fans of 2008 when he averaged 15! That was his first IPL season fresh out of ICC Under 19 World Cup win. But how can a cricketer like Kohli, who has faced the best and prevailed, suddenly goes through a mental block? This is a question which has kept the fans and pundits on the tenterhooks. While Kevin Pietersen, who saw Kohli at RCB, said that great players do go through this and come back stronger, Sunil Gavaskar said ‘that it was just anxiety.’
IPL 2022 – FULL COVERAGE , SCHEDULE , RESULTS , ORANGE CAP , PURPLE CAP , POINTS TABLE
Now Gavaskar’s old colleague Sandip Patil has also weighed into the issue, saying that Kohli just needs a break from the game. Well, it seems he certainly has a point as Kohli is playing cricket in all three formats and 2021 was particularly harsh on him with he stepping down from the captaincy.
“He needs a break. It is not that this is something new. It has happened, and it should happen. It is happening at the wrong time. I am not saying it is happening at the right time as I would have said that when India starts playing, then he should come back to form. But IPL is equally important. I don’t see any worries. If I were to make a decision, I would give him a break. He should take a break. The same thing applies for Rohit (Sharma) also. It is not just with Virat. Rohit is also struggling. They need a break. I am not saying a break of one month but a couple of games,” Patil told News 18 Cricketnext.
These are hard times for Virat Kohli. It’s more than two years since he scored an international century, adding to that the personal setbacks that he received in 2021. Captaincy taken away, poor finish at the ICC T20 World Cup, what do you need to have a bad year? And here he was scoring a couple of forties in the first two games at the IPL 2022, and then it all came to a crashing halt. On Saturday against Sunrisers Hyderabad he was out for his fifth golden duck; fans and pundits all alike were convinced that this is not a fluke. This was serious bad form.
Get all the latest updates on Cricket News, Cricket Photos, Cricket Videos, IPL 2022 Live Updates and Cricket Scores here
,