New Delhi Former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar has slammed the Indian coaching staff over Virat Kohli’s struggles in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 against Australia. Manjrekar feels Kohli, who has been getting out in similar fashion repeatedly, needs outside help and India’s coaches should intervene to help the star batter fix his problems.
Kohli has struggled against the outside off ploy deployed by the Australian pacers and has continuously gotten out by poking deliveries on the sixth stump line. Despite having been warned multiple times about chasing deliveries bowled outside the off stump, Kohli has shown no signs of relating and has managed a string of low-key scores in the last two Tests.
Recently when asked about Kohli’s performances in the pre-match presser, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma insisted the star batter is a ‘modern-day great’ and will find his way to get back among the runs. However, Manjrekar disagreed with Rohit’s suggestion on Kohli and said the onus is no longer only on the star batter to improve but also on the ‘batting coach’ to intervene.
“But that is not true where a modern-day great will find his own way out. If that was the case, then he would have. That is why I’m no longer focussing on Kohli’s problem, but on the guy who was supposed to solve the problem, that is the batting coach,” Manjrekar said while speaking about Kohli on ESPNCricinfo.
“And if he can’t address these chronic problems that some of our batters have had, and these are mostly technical battles. So it is pretty obvious to everyone that Kohli needs outside help because he, on his own, hasn’t been able to solve it,” he added.
While Manjrekar has put the blame on the Indian team’s batting coach, it is interesting to note that the visitors don’t have a specialist batting coach in their backroom staff. While Gautam Gambhir is the head coach, ex-India batter Abhishek Nayar and former Dutch all-rounder Ryan ten Doeschate are assistant coaches of the team.
Virat Kohli’s numbers in Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25
Kohli has had an abysmal outing in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 against Australia so far with only 126 runs from three Test matches. Amid widespread criticism, Kohli started the series on a [positive note with an unbeaten century in India’s second innings of the 1st Test against Australia in Perth. However, he has since failed to make an impact.
Kohli has managed only 21 runs in the last two Tests against Australia, highlighting his struggles against the outside off ploy used by the Australian pacers. The Team India star will be hoping to return among the runs by notching up a big knock in the all-important Boxing Day Test in Melbourne which gets underway on Thursday.
Ex-India batter Sanjay Manjrekar slammed India’s coaching staff amid the senior batter VIrat Kohli’s struggles and his weakness around outside off stump. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
