Don’t write off champions: Nathan Lyon on Kohli’s recent batting slump
The Australian team must be hoping to take advantage of Virat Kohli’s prolonged batting slump when the two sides clash in the five-Test series for the Border-Gavaskar trophy
After India’s 1-4 defeat against England in the recently concluded five-match Test series, former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar reckons that Virat Kohli still has a “lot to learn”.
“He (Kohli) still has a lot to learn. Like we saw in South Africa earlier and now in England too, there were instances when right field placements or timely bowling changes made by him could have made a big difference. That was missing again. It has just been two years (he took over four years back) since he took over as a captain so at times the lack of experience shows,” Gavaskar told India Today.
However, Sunil Gavaskar played down Virat Kohli’s much-criticised reaction to a reporter’s query whether he agreed with head coach Ravi Shastri’s statement on this being the best travelling team in the last 15 years.
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Talking about the incident, Gavaskar said while the question asked by the scribe was “justified”, the timing was wrong.
“That is probably the wrong time to ask him that question. He (Virat) must have been hurting from the defeat. Maybe the reporter was perfectly justified in asking that but I don’t think any skipper would have responded with a “you are right but we are wrong” statement,” Gavaskar said.
The former Indian opener also said one shouldn’t read too much into the incident.
“His team was 1-3 down and maybe he just wanted to end on a high. I don’t think that we should read too much into Virat’s reaction either. It was clear that the skipper was disappointed with what had happened and maybe he responded that way,” said Gavaskar.
The 69-year-old veteran also believes Shastri’s intention was not to insult the yesteryear teams.
“To be honest, Ravi (Shastri) would have said that (best touring team in last 15 years) to lift the morale of the team. I don’t think so that he was trying to rubbish the earlier teams. That wasn’t the coach’s intention I believe,” Gavaskar concluded.
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