There have been growing concerns over the form of star India batter Virat Kohli. The former India captain has been going through a rough patch for the past few months; he scored 341 runs in 16 matches in the 2022 Indian Premier League, and failed to cross the 20-run mark in six innings across all formats during the recently-concluded tour of England. While he registered scores of 11 and 20 in the rescheduled fifth Test, Kohli scored 1 and 11 in the two T20Is and followed them up with another series of low scores (16 and 17) in the ODI series.
While many have criticised Kohli over his bad form, he has also received massive support from the cricketing fraternity. Pakistan captain Babar Azam, England’s white-ball skipper Jos Buttler, and former England captain Kevin Pietersen were some of the many among the fraternity to voice their support for Kohli amid his bad patch. On Tuesday, former Pakistan captain Salman Butt also came in support of the 33-year-old India batter, insisting that people should back him instead of pointing out his failures “again and again.”
“Even Babar Azam wants to see him scoring runs. Virat Kohli is a big player, there’s no doubt about that. Any player can have bad patches, sometimes they can go frustratingly longer. People stop believing in you. But then, big players always come back,” said Butt on his official YouTube channel.
“When he was enjoying a good run for many years, people used to say, ‘this guy can never go out of form’. So, it’s the human side of it. He should be backed instead of saying ‘he has failed’ again and again. It is a game of cricket at the end of the day.”
Butt also made a strong remark on one of the fan comments on his channel that said Kohli struggles against left-arm bowling.
“Who doesn’t have problems against left-arm pacers? Rohit Sharma faces more troubles against them. In this series, Reece Topley dismissed almost all their batters. In South Africa, Marco Jansen did the same. Mohammad Amir troubled them. Shaheen was brilliant in the T20 World Cup against India. Left-armers have a difficult angle in comparison to right-armers,” said Butt.
“So, Kohli isn’t alone. Other batters also have similar issues.”
Virat Kohli has been rested for the upcoming tour of the West Indies and is expected to make a return to the side in late August. Rohit, meanwhile, will lead the side in the five-match T20I series against the Windies.