Mumbai: Former India cricketer Yuvraj Singh says Virat Kohli needs to look back at his younger days and how he was as a person to rectify the current slump he is facing. Yuvraj claimed that Kohli’s work ethic is four times better than any athlete he has seen in the last 15 years and that will help him to come out of the slump.
Kohli’s slump in form, which has been going on for almost two years, has been evident from his figures in IPL 2022. In nine matches, Kohli has made just 128 runs at an average of 16 and strike-rate of 119.62.
The tally of his last five innings in the tournament read as: – 9 (10), 0 (1), 0 (1), 12 (14), and 1 (3). Though head coach Sanjay Bangar has backed him to come good in further matches, questions have been asked of how Kohli can get back to his run-scoring best or whether he needs a break from the game to find his lost touch.
“Virat needs to become a free-flowing personality again. If he can change himself and be like how he was earlier that will reflect in his game. He has proved himself to be the best of this era and believes in a strong work ethic and that has brought the best out of him over the years,” said Yuvraj in first part of an upcoming two-phase interview on ‘Home of Heroes’ show on the newly-launched sports channel Sports18 to be aired at 7pm on April 29.
Yuvraj, a member of India’s winning squad in 2007 Men’s T20 World Cup and 2011 Men’s Cricket World Cup, felt that what is currently happening with Kohli happens to the best of cricketers in the world. “Obviously, he is also not happy, and people aren’t too, because we have seen him setting bigger benchmarks, scoring hundreds after hundreds. But this happens to the best players.”
Bangalore are currently at fifth place in points table with ten points from nine matches. The Faf-du Plessis-led side will face table-toppers Gujarat Titans on April 30 at Brabourne Stadium.
–IANS