While everyone is busy raising fingers at Virat Kohli’s struggling form, Rahul Dravid is not at all worried about his form, and while the cricket fans may be “a bit obsessed with his statistics and numbers", people actually involved and around Kohli know that his worth is far more than a few failed matches.  

"He played very well in the last match [against Hong Kong], and we are happy with his performance," Dravid said. "He is also coming back after a gap of almost a month. It's nice to the see that he has come back fresh and that he is looking forward to playing every game. Not that he wasn't looking forward to playing every game earlier."

Prior to the Asia Cup, in a chat with Star Sports, Kohli got candid about the reasons for his poor form. When he said that he had been "trying to fake intensity a bit" in order to continue playing, he was being frank. At the time, Kohli also talked openly about how his training passion had been negatively impacted by his schedule, which "disturbed" him and made him realise he needed to "walk away" for a while.

It seems to have succeeded. When the team first gathered for this event in the UAE, India captain Rohit Sharma noticed a freshness in Kohli, and Dravid concurred.

"Sometimes with Virat, he is just one of those guys who is always on," Dravid said. "It's not that earlier he was not. It's nice, I'm glad he has had that opportunity to take a break, come back refreshed and relaxed. He's got a chance to be out in the middle, spend some time in the middle. Hopefully from here he can kick on have a really good tournament."

Kohli has so far scored 35 and 59* runs in two innings. He played a complete Kohli inning against Pakistan. He didn't appear rusty, but he also didn't seem fully in charge. There were certain photos that made you gasp in wonder and others that made you grit your teeth. He overcame a sluggish start against Hong Kong and provided Suryakumar Yadav with the ideal counterbalance as both batters scored contrasting half-centuries.

Dravid emphasized that it was important for the team management to view Kohli's performances through a lens that didn't always place an exclusive focus on high scores. "For us, it's not really about looking at how many runs he makes. I know that especially with Virat people get a bit obsessed with his statistics and his numbers.”

"For us, it's about the contributions he can make in different phases in the game and what the contribution is. It doesn't have to be in fifties or hundreds or a stat. Even small contributions mean a lot in T20 cricket, what is the role of a player and what the team needs. Virat is very keen in putting in big performances. Hopefully he can keep doing that in the tournament."

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