India and Chennai Super Kings batter Robin Uthappa is worried Virat Kohli’s elongated patch without big scores may have something to do with menthal issues.
Uthappa, mindful of the fact that Kohli has not scored an international hundred for over two years now, said the “ghosts” the right-hander must be dealing with “must be immense”.
A well-wisher of his, he said he “truly hope” Kohli has a strong confidant with whom he can open up about his mental fatigue, if any, he may be carrying for a long time.
“I really hope somebody is doing that with Virat Kohli, because it’s very hard for someone like him, the kind of thoughts that must be going through his mind,”
Uthappa said in a News 9 podcast show ‘Mind Over Medals’.
“For someone of his calibre to not score a hundred for three years (27 months, precisely), the ghosts that he must be dealing with must be immense.
I truly hope that there is someone who he trusts completely that he’s having conversations with. These are very lonely battles that sportspeople go through.”
he added.
Kohli last made a hundred in the first innings of the D/N Test against Bangladesh in Kolkata in late November 2019. In this phase, he has averaged 28.14 in Tests and 37.66 in ODIs.
His T20I record stays great – an average of 56.40; strike-rate 145.11 – but a closer look at his trials by spin suggests a decline on that front. Against spin, since January 2020, he has had a strike-rate of just 103.58 off 195 deliveries in T20Is.
Struggles to spin in white-ball cricket and inconsistency in Tests have been integral to a phase where, for the first time in his career, Kohli’s batting has shown real signs of wear and tear. He hasn’t looked in his usual rhythm at the crease and has found ways to get out.
The excessively busy calendar and the need to shift bubbles in the pandemic don’t help the case either. Former India head coach Ravi Shastri, Kohli’s strongest confidant, was one of the first to attribute the great batter’s inconsistency to the bubble fatigue.
