New Delhi: India’s present coaching team neither has the stature nor confidence to point out the technical flaws of Virat Kohli’s batting, claimed former bowling coach Bharat Arun.
Kohli is in the midst of a prolonged slump in form, scoring only 440 runs in 11 Test matches at an average of 23.15 with one century and a fifty.
The former India skipper has been susceptible to the moving ball outside the off stump, falling prey to it in each of his nine innings in five Test matches in Australia.
It has led to calls for him getting dropped from the Test team after India lost 1-3 to surrender the Border-Gavaskar Trophy to Australia.
While speaking to former cricketer S Badrinath, Arun, who was India’s bowling coach for six years over two spells, said coaching Kohli is a challenge as he is firm on maintaining his technique that has fetched him 81 international hundreds.
“Virat will ask questions when you suggest, obviously he’s world no.1 batter. He will ask how are you saying this, what mistake did I make? I scored runs, why did you not tell me at that time?” Arun said while speaking on Youtube to Badrinath.
When Kohli listened to Shastri
Arun spoke of how former Ravi Shastri, with whom Arun worked for the national team during his second stint from 2017 to 2021, coerced Kohli to change his stump guard that fetched him much success in Australia in 2018 series.
“Shastri told him, ‘You stand on the leg stump and the ball swings in England. You cannot stand here, stand on the middle stump, come out of the crease. You are the owner of the crease. Kohli followed this in Australia and scored four centuries’. To say this to Kohli, one needs to have the kind of stature and confidence that Ravi Shastri had, which I think the current coaching staff does not have,” Arun added.
Since 2020, Kohli has failed to reach his lofty standards, managing only 2028 runs in 39 matches (69 innings) at an average of 30.72 with three tons and nine fifties that had led to his Test batting average dropping from 54.97 in 2019 to 46.85.
Virat Kohli is in the midst of a prolonged slump in form, scoring only 440 runs in 11 Test matches at an average of 23.15 with one century and a fifty. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
