‘Virat Kohli should go back to Domestic Cricket’: Ex-India player’s BOLD take on star batter’s struggle with Test form

Team India on Saturday experienced their first home Test series loss in 12 years, losing to New Zealand by 113 runs in the second match of the three-match Test series in Pune.  India’s star batter Kohli had a disappointing outing in the 2nd Test, having scored only 1 and 17 runs in the 1st and 2nd innings of the match respectively. Apart from his 70-run innings in the first Test, Kohli, one of the most experienced players in the Rohit-Sharma-led side, has been struggling to score runs in red-ball cricket.

Former India batter Dinesh Karthik expressed his concerns about Virat Kohli's struggle against spin and his inability to score more runs in the ongoing Test series.

“Virat Kohli has not had it easy, the series has not been good to him, three out of four innings, he has disappointed. It’s obviously a recurring partner where spinners have troubled him, and I think he will go and figure out what he needs to do to come out stronger. He is a man, who is searching for answers. When you reach that level of genius and super stardom, you will be thrown challenges and here is another challenge. India likes to play on pitches that aids spin, what is his gameplan?” said Dinesh Karthik while speaking to Cricbuzz.

Karthik also believes that Virat Kohli should return to domestic cricket to regain his form in the red-ball format.

“We all know what he is capable, this series was not meant to be. Like the fans have been saying, he has not done it for a long time and that we cannot run away from. We don’t want to sugarcoat it because we want to be as objective in assessing any player, any performance, at the moment Virat Kohli’s Test record in the last 2-3 years, has not been great against spin,” said Karthik.

“What he needs to do, is probably go back to domestic cricket and focus on what needs to be done with the current rules of DRS. There is no doubt the left-arm spinners pose a big threat,” he added.

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