Former England spinner Graeme Swann feels that the fans and critics should ease on Virat Kohli who is a star asset for the Indian cricket team. Kohli has been going through a lean patch with the bat which has put a lot of scrutiny on his place on the T20I side. The former India captain had a disappointing time with the bat in the recently concluded T20I series against England.
Kohli tried to embrace the new fearless approach in the last two matches of the series but failed to score big and was dismissed on 1 and 11 in Southampton and Nottingham respectively.
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Several former cricketers and fans have started raising questions about his place in T20I XI as they feel young talents like Deepak Hooda are not getting enough chances as India are sticking with Kohli who scored his last international century way back in 2019.
Swann feels that the fans and the media are putting added pressure on Kohli which is not working in his favour and they need to ease up a bit on the start asset.
“Maybe when you have got a player as good as him, if he was English and I was in the English media, I would be saying hey, we need to ease up on him, we need to take pressure off our star asset so that he performs rather than putting more undue pressure on him, just saying,” Swann said on the Sony Sports Network after the third T20I.
The veteran English spinner said that fans can make things easier and harder for players and if they value Kohli’s talent then they have to stop putting him under the pressure every time he goes out to bat.
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“As a player, you would feel the pressure from fans and fans have a job, that you can make it easier for your players or you can make it harder. If you do not want Virat Kohli in your team anymore, by all means keep on heaping the pressure or if you value the asset, then go easy on him,” he stated further.
Former India batter Ajay Jadeja also opined the same and said that everyone has to allow Kohli to let him be as everyone knows his capability.
“It comes with this territory because the expectation is so much, Virat Kohli, we have just gotten used to him scoring runs and hundreds game after game. I am with Swann; he is your asset and you have to let him be. Let him play, you know what you are going to get,” said Ajay Jadeja on Sony Sports Network.
Jadeja suggested that Kohli should get some more time here as the Indian team is still trying out players and things will go better for the former India skipper.
“You know what is the best of Kohli, at the moment you are probably getting the worst of Virat Kohli. He is only going to get better, I am with Swann, take the pressure of him rather than putting more on him. Give him a little more time, let him take more time, you are trying out players anyway, why don’t you give him a little extra time,” he added.
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