Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar believes Virat Kohli needs to look at what worked for him during India’s 2018 tour of England to succeed in the World Test Championship (WTC) Final. India will take on Australia at the Oval in the summit clash of the competition from Wednesday, June 7.
Kohli had a horrible Test series in England back in 2014 and one of the main resons was his vulnerability against deliveries just outside off-stump. However, four years later, Kohli ended up with a staggering 593 runs in five Tests in the same conditions with an outstanding average of 59.3 and two hundreds.
Speaking to Star Sports, Manjrekar explained why the former Indian skipper needs to go back to what worked for him in 2018. He said:
“In that 2014 series, he used to play at balls that were away from the off stump and that could have been left. But what he did in 2018 made me go like ‘Wow, this is an all-time great.’ He just went the old-fashioned way of leaving the ball outside off-stump.
“That was the secret of Virat Kohli’s success. He needs to go back to that formula.”
Irfan Pathan on Virat Kohli’s current form
The past 12 months have been nothing short of sensational for Virat Kohli as he has been scoring runs across formats and seems to have found his mojo. The superstar batter will enter the WTC final after amassing 639 runs in 14 matches during the 2023 edition of the Indian Premier League as well.
Former Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan was also present in the aforementioned discussion on Star Sports. He believes Kohli’s confidence in himself has helped him get back to his vintage best.
On this, Pathan stated:
“It’s a completely different Virat Kohli who has also scored a lot of runs. He has scored a hundred in Tests, T20 and also in a one-day game so the century drought has gone away. Such a confident player.
“He has scored 25,000 runs in international cricket and that’s because he has the confidence in himself and his abilities.”
In the absence of an X-factor like Rishabh Pant in the middle-order against a strong Australian side, India will need Kohli to fire on all cylinders in the WTC Final.