Indian captain Virat Kohli has not been in the best form during recent India vs England test series. He has only 124 runs from 5 innings, with just one half-century to his name. Kohli has now gone more than 50 innings without an international century, and concerns are increasing.
Former Indian player WV Raman has now advised Virat Kohli. He believes that the Indian captain should discard the idea of leading from the front, and instead nudge others from behind.
“See we cannot really fault him. What can generally be the norm in life and other spheres might not apply in cricket always. I mean, what has happened is, there is a lot of pressure on Virat himself. We pay a lot of attention to everything he does. We know he is one of the best batsmen so we expect a lot from him. It’s similar to how it was with Sachin Tendulkar when he was playing. Even 95 was considered a failure,” Raman said
“As a leader, I’ll tell him, you need to discard and forget this thing of leading from the front. Nudge others and lead from behind.”
WV Raman also spoke about the Indian vice-captain and his poor run. Ajinkya Rahane has managed to score only 95 runs in 5 innings. He reckons that all the Indian batsmen need to learn from KL Rahul’s technique in the first game where he was playing very close and leaving deliveries outside the off stump.
“It’s not a case of having to drop somebody in so much as to think whether you need an additional batter in the XI. Things have changed suddenly in the Indian innings in the first two Test matches. The openers have played well, taken the shine off, played out the opening spells, but suddenly there has been a slump. This is something that’s happening, unfortunately. Even in the last Test, if you’re shot out for below 100, there’s nothing much you can analyse.
“Perhaps you can take a leaf out of the approach of KL Rahul in Nottingham. He was playing very close, coming down the track, looking to leave as much as he wanted to play, which is good batting. He also executed what was expected of him. It also gave confidence to the dressing room that this is something that can be done.
“So perhaps it’s a case of each batter working out an approach that will help him overcome the conditions. Rahane is experienced, has played international cricket and also got runs abroad. So it’s not capable. It’s just that he has to work out an approach and method to succeed. As simple as that.”