Dubai: Just like skipper Rohit Sharma has stoutly defended all questions on Virat Kohli’s prolonged bad patch, his deputy KL Rahul followed suit stating the obvious template answer, that it’s all “noise on the outside”.
From being one of India’s greatest batters of all time, Kohli’s slump in form has given rise to a debate if his presence in the playing XI in T20Is is affecting the balance of the side.
“We don’t really give much importance to such comments. It doesn’t really affect a player, especially a world-class player like Virat will not be affected by what people are saying (on the outside),” Rahul said, ditto of what Kohli used to say when something specifically critical used to be asked and current skipper Rohit does the same when questioned on his predecessor.
“He has had a little break and he is working on his game,” he said.
While Kohli hasn’t scored an international hundred for nearly three years now, Rahul doesn’t find anything wrong in his batting but feels may be the unbelievable run he had for a good seven eight years have left people yearning for more.
“When I was injured and at home for two months, I watched him play and it did not feel like he was out of form.”
“Maybe, the standards he has set for himself, he hasn’t been able to get to that level yet. But, I’m sure he’s hungry to win matches for the country. That’s what he has done throughout his career,” he added.
PTI