Kapil Dev suggests weakened eyesight and reflexes reason behind Virat Kohli’s recent failures

Indian captain Virat Kohli is not having a good outing in international cricket with the bat or as captain against the New Zealand team. First, his team was knocked out of the ICC World Cup 2019 in the semifinals by them, and now have whitewashed India twice, once 3-0 in ODIs and 2-0 in Test series. The horrible thing was that Kohli couldn’t manage to lead from the front this time.

In nine innings in New Zealand, Kohli managed just one score of above 50, which came in a losing cause in a one-day international, He was most needed to lead the Indian batting in the Test series, but managed just 38 runs in 4 innings, ending up with an average of 9.50. This has led to huge criticism of his batting failures, some of which came from former India skipper Kapil Dev.

‘When you cross 30 then it affects your eyesight’: Kapil Dev

The 1983 World Cup-winning captain and one of the most celebrated cricketers in the world, Kapil Dev has put the blame of Kohli’s ongoing failures on his slowing reflexes and eyesight. As per the former captain, Kohli, who is 31-years-old, is struggling to see the ball properly, hampering his reflexes in process.

“When you reach a certain age, when you cross 30 then it affects your eyesight. In swings, which used to be his strength, he (Kohli) used to flick them four but now he has been dismissed twice. So, I think he needs to adjust his eyesight a bit,” Dev was quoted by timesnownews.com.

In fact, Kohli has not made a century in more than 20 international matches and counting, a rare thing for someone who has the second most hundreds in international cricket after Sachin Tendulkar.

Kapil Dev felt that Kohli needs to practice more and change the way he prepares for his innings. He opined when big players like Kohli start getting LBW to incoming deliveries, they need to start changing their ways as their reflexes and eyesight weakens.

Kapil also said that IPL will help him in making adjustments to his game and will be back to being the best in no time. “From 18-24, your eyesight is at the optimum level. Therefore, Kohli needs to practice more. When your eyesight weakens then you have to tighten up your technique more. I think IPL will help him. He will start getting the hang of it and realize that he needs to make adjustments,” he said.