'I would definitely want him to come back to the academy' - Kohli's childhood coach has a request for old student

Indian stalwart Virat Kohli did not have much of a say with the bat during the second Test match played against Sri Lanka in M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. Although team India won the contest comfortably, Kohli managed to score only 36 runs in two innings of the match. He was dismissed in a similar fashion both times getting trapped in front of the wicket twice by the Sri Lankan spinners.

As the cricketing fraternity waits for Kohli’s 71st international hundred since 2019, there seems to be a problem with his batting technique according to his childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma. He has asked Kohli to come back to the academy and work on the basics of batting.

In first innings of the second Test, the former Indian skipper was batting on 23 before being adjudged lbw against off-spinner Dhananjaya de Silva on a delivery that kept low. Looking to rectify his mistake in the second innings, Kohli tried to look busy at the wicket. However, the batter could only only manage to score 13 runs, hitting one boundary in the process. The 33-year old was trapped by Praveen Jayawickrama with a ball which kept a tad low.

Virat will need to come back to his basics, feels his former coach

“Virat will need to come back to his basics. I would definitely want him to come back to the academy. I was thinking about this from yesterday and I am going to talk to him. The kind of confidence that he gets batting in the academy, he needs it,” Rajkumar was quoted as saying by India.com.

“He is batting really well but unfortunately, he is batting too cautiously. If starts to bat a bit more freely, like he has his entire career then soon he will be back to his best. On such wickets you need to take more chances like Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer did,” he added.

After his multiple failures in Bengaluru Test, Virat Kohli’s average fell below 50 for the first time since 2017. Kohli now averages 49.95. In 101 Test matches, he has scored 8043 runs with 28 fifties and 27 centuries under his belt.