File photo of Virat Kohli.© AFP
Virat Kohli’s weakness outside the off-stump has become a big issue for him now. The batter clearly struggled with it during India’s recently-concluded five-match Test series against Australia. Once the linchpin of India’s batting, Kohli suffered a tough time Down Under, scoring just 190 runs at an average under 24, despite scoring an unbeaten hundred in the first Test in Perth. It was always the balls outside the off-stump that made Kohli’s life miserable on the Australian soil. Former India cricketers like Sunil Gavaskar and Sanjay Manjrekar criticised the star batter, but also held the coaching unit responsible for the failure. Another ex-India player Aakash Chopra, however, differs in opinion.
Chopra stated that if Kohli’s problem is chronic, it is the previous coaching staff that should be criticised for failing to find a solution for it.
“Sunny bhai (Sunil Gavaskar) and Sanjay bhai (Manjrekar) both said that Virat Kohli’s issues outside the off-stump are chronic problems. They said it should be solved and asked what Abhishek Nayar and Gautam Gambhir were doing as part of the coaching staff,” Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
“When you have used the word chronic or you are seeing a problem that doesn’t exist only today in isolation, which was probably there earlier, went missing for some time, and has returned, can you blame the coaching department that has been there with this team for only the last six months? You cannot say that Virat Kohli got out because Gautam didn’t resolve his issues,” Chopra added.
“If it’s a chronic problem like someone stays committed on the front foot or someone’s reflexes are getting slower, it wouldn’t have happened in six months. So if you have to point your guns and fire, you have to look towards the last coaching staff as well, which no one is talking about,” he said.
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