'The darkest hour is just before the dawn' - Wasim Jaffer backs Virat Kohli amid poor form

Former India opener Wasim Jaffer has come forward and backed Virat Kohli who is going through a slump in his batting form for nearly three years. Showing faith in the batting megastar, Jaffer took to his official Instagram handle, posted an image of Virat, and captioned it, “The darkest hour is just before the dawn. He will be back.”

The ongoing England tour has so far turned out to be a forgettable one for Kohli as he could only manage scores of 11 and 20 in the rescheduled fifth Test match and 1 and 11 in the two T20Is. The 33-year-old was ruled out of the first One Day International due to a groin injury. India won that contest by 10 wickets to go 1-0 up in the three-match series.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Wasim Jaffer (@wasimjaffer14)

Kohli, who was the top-ranked batter at one point in time across formats, has lost his place in the top 10 Test and T20I rankings.. However, he has maintained the third spot in the ICC ODI batters rankings behind the Pakistan duo of Babar Azam and Imam-ul-Haq. Kohli has not scored a century since November 2019 and his long wait for the 71st international century continues.

It now remains to be seen whether the batting icon will be able to roar back to form in the last two matches. The second ODI will be played at the ‘Home of Cricket’ Lord’s on Thursday, July 14 and the Men in Blue would be hoping to seal the One Day series by winning this one. Should the Rohit Sharma-led side come out on top in this game, they will win their first ODI series on English soil after 2014. They had suffered a 1-2 loss in 2018 despite having won the series opener.

Meanwhile, both Kohli and Bumrah have been rested for the upcoming limited-overs series against the West Indies starting July 22, ahead of the Asia Cup 2022 that is scheduled to get underway on August 27.