Virat Kohli has nothing to prove, but of late the former captain hasn’t been getting the bagful of runs that he usually accumulates with ease. May be that was the reason why he went straight to the nets with his bat as soon as he entered Eden Gardens on Monday.
The three-match T20I series against the West Indies begins here on Wednesday.
For a good 15 minutes, Kohli faced some deliveries from Deepak Chahar alongside taking throwdowns from a member of the support staff. Chahar tried to bowl the outside off-stump line, which has turned out to be Kohli’s nemesis and the primary reason behind his slump, particularly in the longest format, for almost a year.
Without an international century for over two years, Kohli had a torrid time in the recently-concluded ODI series versus the Windies too, aggregating only 26 runs in the three matches. He is still the superstar he was, but the former captain does need some runs behind him to be in a better situation mentally and also silence his critics.
That brief nets session was followed by drills along with direct-hit practice. And soon after, Kohli was back in the nets and batted for almost 50 minutes. After all, there is no alternative to good practice.
The Indian team management don’t seem to be too worried over Kohli’s current loss of form. “I have had no specific conversation with Virat and I don’t think he has been going through a lean form as he has scored plenty of runs in ODI and T20Is last year,” batting coach Vikram Rathour claimed during a virtual news conference.
“Yes, he has had a relatively poor (ODI) series against the West Indies. But he has been batting well in the nets. I am certain that he will bounce back soon,” Rathour added.
The Motera wicket in Ahmedabad did have some assistance for the quicks, which made batting tougher not just for Kohli, but for a few other Indian batsmen as well. The Eden pitch, like it has been over the last five years, will be a sporting one with spinners likely to get turn in the latter part of the matches.
India, though, aren’t too pleased with the pitches, it has been learnt. The team management wants the little bit of grass that’s there on the pitches for the three T20Is to be trimmed further.
Spinner Washington Sundar is ruled out of the series due to a hamstring injury, and India have added left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav to the T20I squad, while Harpreet Brar (another left-arm spinner) too has been included.
Rohit’s help
Fresh from winning a Rs 12.25-crore contract with Kolkata Knight Riders in the just-concluded IPL auction in Bangalore, Shreyas Iyer looked to be having certain issues in playing the pull shot during Monday’s training, which lasted for around three hours.
He straightaway headed to captain Rohit Sharma in order to get it sorted. And Rohit too was more than eager to help, passing on his suggestions to Shreyas, who looked far more confident after that in the nets.
Rohit’s Mumbai Indians teammate Kieron Pollard, on the other hand, spent a fair amount of time dealing with leg-spin bowling at one of the centre wickets during the Windies’ training session in the afternoon. Missing the second and third ODIs after a first-ball dismissal in the tour opener, the Windies skipper must be determined to make a statement and contribute for his team.
Vacant seats
Rows of seats left vacant at the Eden during a T20 international match is a rarity. But owing to the BCCI diktat, for the first T20I at least, only those related to sponsors and representatives would be allowed at the Club House upper tier and hospitality boxes.
The Cricket Association of Bengal, however, has again requested the BCCI to reconsider allowing spectators for the remaining two matches on Friday and Sunday.