'He is capable of accelerating in the end' - Krishnamachari Srikkanth urges Virat Kohli to play his natural game in T20Is

Star India batter Virat Kohli registered his first golden duck in T20Is during the third match against Afghanistan on Wednesday, January 17 at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru. The 35-year-old tried to go hard from ball one and ended up hitting one straight to Ibrahim Zadran at mid-off. However, his low score didn’t affect the team much as India went on to win the thrilling encounter which saw two super overs for the first time in international cricket.

While analysing India’s performance in the third T20I, former India cricketer Krishnamachari Srikkanth commented on Kohli’s approach and stated that everyone should follow their game. He further compared Kohli with Rohit Sharma’s style of batting and said that the former India captain should continue to play his natural game.

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"Each player has his own game. Everybody should first follow their game. If you tell Yashasvi Jaiswal to take his time and play, it's not right. Players like him and 'Cheeka', you can't tell them to take their time. Rohit Sharma is capable of doing it. Virat Kohli should play his natural game. He likes taking his time. He is not worried about hitting sixes. He is capable of accelerating in the end, hitting sixes in the end. We saw the Pakistan game in Melbourne, the way he built it up and won it for us," Srikkanth said on his YouTube show.

Srikkanth further said that swinging from the first ball itself doesn’t work every time as a batter can’t connect the ball on every occasion.

"So, like you said, the strike rate and all that should be on the back of the mind. If you run after it desperately, it won't work. If you started swinging from the word go... this is international cricket, you will be lucky to connect once or twice, not always. Virat Kohli should follow his principles of the game. How has he succeeded in international cricket? He has followed his style and done it. I think everybody should stick to their strengths," he added.

Virat Kohli playing under new template for the team

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Notably, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma were called back to the Indian T20I side for the Afghanistan series with the T20 World Cup 2024 around the corner. The duo had been dropped due to their conservative approach in the format after India’s T20 World Cup 2022 exit. Hence, ever since their comeback, they are seen batting in a new template which Kohli hasn’t been able to master yet.