'He needs three months away from cricket' - Michael Vaughan urges underfire Virat Kohli to take sabbatical

Former England skipper Michael Vaughan has urged underfire Virat Kohli to take a sabbatical from the game for three months to help himself in the long run, especially before the T20 World Cup down under in October-November. Kohli has not scored a century across formats since November 2019 and has been going through a lean phase.

The batting megastar was a part of India’s playing XI in the just-concluded rescheduled fifth Test match against England in Birmingham, where the Three Lions registered a comfortable seven-wicket win. Kohli had a forgettable outing as he managed just 31 runs in the match (11 and 20). In the second innings, he was dismissed in an unfortunate manner by skipper Ben Stokes off a delivery that generated extra bounce after pitching.

Virat Kohli needs a sabbatical: Michael Vaughan

“I look at Virat in particular. I knew he had a little bit of a rest at the end of the IPL. But he just looks to me like he needs a sabbatical. He looks like he needs three months away from cricket. Go and sit on a beach”, said Vaughan while speaking to Cricbuzz.

“Go and do what you can with your family because a career of 20 years, which he probably will end up getting because he’s such a good player. To have a three months break, is it going to affect him? No. Will it help him? Yes,” he added.

Kohli, who was the top-ranked batter across formats at one point in time, has now slipped out from the top 10 rankings in Tests and T20Is owing to his slump in form for a long time. Meanwhile, he has been included in the Indian squad for the white-ball series for the second and third T20Is against England.

Meanwhile, Kohli, along with other key players including skipper Rohit Sharma, wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant, pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, etc., has been rested for the away limited-overs series against the West Indies that kicks off on July 22 as a part of workload management.