Former India Wicketkeeper batsman Saba Karim believes that Virat Kohli needs to invoke higher levels of concentration and greater levels of resilience to get the big score that has eluded the batsman for a long period of time.
Virat Kohli has had a lackluster One Day International series in England. During the 3rd ODI, Virat Kohli scored 16 runs off 25 deliveries and was finally dismissed by David Willey. The dismissal of Kohli put India into troubled waters at 31-4 and from there India were never going to achieve a target of 246 runs. India could score only 146 runs in their innings and lost the game by a 100 runs
Saba Karim was asked why Virat was looking good but still getting out, to which he replied- “I feel he needs a little more concentration and stronger willpower to emerge from this phase. This story has been repeated by Virat Kohli many times. That is why we have been saying how good he looks, he is in good form, but the search for the big score is still there.”
Saba Karim believed that Kohli has had a recent tendency of playing the deliveries away from his body and that he should go back to his old way of playing deliveries close to his body.
“Virat Kohli’s specialty has always been that he allows the ball to come close to his body and then he plays his shots. But the way he has been getting out, the way he got out today as well, the ball was too far outside the off-stump and he tried to flirt with it and the result was that he got out again.”
Kohli hit three boundaries against pitched-up deliveries off left arm pacer Reece Topley’s bowling at the start of his innings. His Bangalore franchise teammate David Willey then got him to poke at a good-length delivery that moved away from him, only for him to edge a catch to Jos Buttler behind the stumps.
Saba Karim mentioned that there is a certain pattern to Virat Kohli’s dismissals.
“I am seeing a pattern in Virat Kohli’s dismissals, what happens before that. We saw in the Test matches that he played fantastic drives off the front foot, so are bowlers setting him up like that?”
He also stated that Kohli needs to analyze the oppositions game so that he understands the game plan that will allow him to play better cricket on the pitch
“They first pitch it up to him, so that he commits himself on the front foot and then shorten the length slightly and then get a wicket there. It is necessary for Virat Kohli to understand this and then find a solution for it. You can emerge from this phase if you are ready to bring a change in your game plan.” Saba Karim added.
