After a brief absence, Virat Kohli returned to action for India following a brilliant performance in the T20 World Cup 2024 final. The star batsman did not appear to be at his best during the three Colombo matches of the most recent three-game ODI series against Sri Lanka.
Following a draw in the first ODI, Sri Lanka shocked India by winning the second and third ODIs by margins of 32 and 110 runs, respectively. After the star batsman only managed to score 24 runs in the opening One-Day International, Virat Kohli’s performances in the Sri Lanka series rapidly went unnoticed.
In addition, he scored 14 and 20 runs in the next two games after that. Even though Kohli had great expectations going into the game, his performances were scrutinised by the fans.
Former Indian cricketer Dinesh Karthik took the mic in the midst of the criticism, saying that batting in Sri Lanka is very difficult.
Although he made it clear that he wasn’t attempting to defend Kohli in any anyway, the weather in Sri Lanka might occasionally be too severe for a batter.
Let’s start by acknowledging that playing spin in this series has been difficult. It could be anyone, it could be Rohit Sharma, it might be Virat Kohli. It’s been challenging to work with the somewhat semi-new ball in between overs of roughly 8 to 30. There’s no need to be concerned. It has been a challenging pitch to play spinners, but not many pitches operate that way. Playing spin was really difficult, but I won’t defend Virat Kohli here, Karthik told.
Also Read: Ravichandran Ashwin praises Rohit Sharma’s batting abilities in the ODI series against Sri Lanka, saying, “Rohit is par excellence at this point in time.”
It’s important to remember that Kohli had the opportunity to surpass Sachin Tendulkar’s record and become the world’s fastest hitter to reach 14,000 runs in one-day international cricket. But in the 50-over format, he will now have to wait until January 2025 to reach the milestone.
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