Team India’s troubles in Australia have greatly disappointed the Indian fans. Neither ‘King Kohli’ nor ‘Hitman Rohit’ could withstand the Australian attack. The Indian legends who went to Australia after facing a ‘whitewash’ at the hands of New Zealand in the home series could not do anything big and came under attack from the fans. Virat Kohli scored triple digits (100*) only once in 9 innings. Above all, during this period he kept losing his wickets in the same manner.
Kohli and Rohit Sharma struggled to score runs in the Australia tour, due to which India had to face 1-3 defeat in this 5-match series. Kohli scored only 190 runs in 9 innings of this series. He continuously got out while trying to play the balls going outside the off stump. To get Kohli out of this bad phase, his friend AB de Villiers himself has once again come forward.
Edged and caught behind the wicket, all of Virat Kohli’s dismissals this series have had a common theme. #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/5mz5SGcAbh
— 7Cricket (@7Cricket) December 30, 2024
South African legend AB de Villiers has advised his former Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) teammate Virat Kohli to ‘reset’ his mind to recover from poor form and avoid getting into any kind of controversy on the field. In fact, it has been seen that whenever Virat Kohli has been criticized due to his form, De Villiers has supported him.
De Villiers said on X, ‘I believe it is important to reset your mind every time. I think Virat gets involved in fights on the field. This is his biggest strength and it can also be his weakness. During this series, we saw that he had personal fights with some players and the audience disturbed him. Virat loves fighting, but when you are not in the best form of your life, it is best to get rid of those things. It is important to reinvent yourself as a batsman. Every ball is important no matter who the bowler is.
Australia has won the #BGT to book a spot in the #WTCFinal against my Proteas. Hop on to today’s #360Live and let’s talk about what went wrong for India and what else is on in the world of cricket… https://t.co/OydSB92xZE
— AB de Villiers (@ABdeVilliers17) January 5, 2025
This is not the first time that De Villiers has set his mind towards Kohli’s return to form. During England’s 2021 tour of India, Kohli did not bat in the Test series and he was able to score 172 runs in 6 innings of 4 Test matches. After this, he returned to zero (0) in the very first match of the T20 series. Kohli was very worried about his form. He had talked to de Villiers to get his form back.
De Villiers was asked about this in a video released on the Twitter handle of Royal Challengers Bangalore. Then de Villiers had told that he had asked Kohli to work on four points.
He had said, ‘I don’t want to tell this. This is shameful. Maybe I said about four points. We talked about many other issues apart from sports. Many technical issues were also discussed, but all this was quite basic.
Bold Diaries: AB de Villiers interview Part 2
AB de Villiers talks about the message he sent to Virat Kohli during the India England series, the youngsters who have impressed him at RCB, and much more on @myntra presents Bold Diaries.#PlayBold #WeAreChallengers #IPL2021 pic.twitter.com/m9XMGpefqg
— Royal Challengers Bengaluru (@RCBTweets) April 16, 2021
De Villiers had said, ‘I told him four points – see the ball, keep the head straight, allow the ball to come into your space and play. Attitude regarding (body language and attitude).’
Only after the advice of De Villiers, Kohli scored unbeaten 73 runs in the next match and helped India achieve the target of 165 runs against the visiting team and leveled the series 1-1. He helped India win the series 3-2 by scoring 80 runs in 52 balls in the 5th and final T20 match. In the next series (3rd ODI) of that tour of England, the wait for Kohli’s 71st international century continued, but he was again successful in scoring more than fifty runs twice.
Now Team India has to face England at home. Kohli has a series of three ODI matches (6, 9, 12 February). By doing well in these matches against the British, it is a big opportunity for Kohli to get back in form before the Champions Trophy. India will start its campaign in the Champions Trophy tournament played in ODI format on February 20 in Dubai, when it will face Bangladesh team.