Before the commencement of the third Test against England at Headingley, Team India skipper Virat Kohli stated that the wickets in England are the most difficult to bat on, adding that the batsman must keep his ego in his pocket and pay full respect to the circumstances. India, on the other hand, failed to read the conditions effectively at Headingley, and the whole side was dismissed for 78 runs in the first innings. Kohli was dismissed for 7 runs after attempting a wide drive off the outside of the off-stump delivery from England pace spearhead James Anderson. In the current series, Kohli has only scored 69 runs in four innings.
Maninder Singh, a former Indian cricketer, has slammed Kohli, saying that the Indian captain must walk the talk and keep his ego under control. Kohli, 32, must spend some time in the middle, said Maninder, before attempting his shots. “Virat Kohli stated before the Test match that in these English conditions, you have to keep your ego in your pocket. And I believe that is exactly right. If he tries to dominate, like Virat Kohli usually does, these are not the pitches where he can bat like that. He needs to spend some time there as he did on the previous tour where he scored almost 600 runs. Once you know the pace and know how much the ball is seaming around, you can carry on playing your shots. These are not flat Indian pitches, where you can just put your foot forward and start driving. And what Kohli preached, he will have to practice. Keep your ego in your pocket,” Maninder said while speaking to a leading cricket portal.
“Virat Kohli is basically making the same mistakes that he was making on his first tour of England. He is playing away from the body. It could happen to you if you are not playing regular cricket. He got out a couple of times the same way as you did in 2014, when he just got 138 runs in 10 innings. I think things start coming back – am I playing the wrong line? Should I be leaving these balls? All these Indian boys, in the first two Tests, they were leaving balls outside the off stump. I don’t know what happened in this Test match. They were wanting to play at it and paid the price for it. With Virat Kohli, he is going through a bad patch,” he added.
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