Former India player Aakash Chopra has opened up on Virat Kohli’s poor show in recent returns in ODIs, including the 2025 Champions Trophy, and Tests, including the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25 as well. He added that fitness cannot compensate for technical issues in Tests as well. Notably, Kohli has amassed 122 runs, including an unbeaten 100 in India’s last game against Pakistan, at an average of 122.00 in two innings in the ongoing 2025 Champions Trophy as well.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra’, he said, “You won’t get the Australia series Kohli because this is ODI cricket. You have never seen him struggling like that in this format and will not be seen either. Even when he went through his worst possible phase, which was the 2014 England tour, when he struggled, he was scoring runs in ODIs then also. You cannot score runs in Tests with fitness. You have to work a lot on technique and concentration in Tests. You need a different kind of fitness for that. You have to acquire that with solid technique and you cannot have shortcomings there.”

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In the same video, Aakash Chopra added that Virat Kohli’s fitness helps his cause in ODIs.

“ODI cricket is a lot about fitness and no one can exploit you there. You cannot consistently bowl something which is troubling someone. So if you have a problem with your technique, you can put that aside if you have incredible fitness, and he is fit. He benefits the most from his fitness in this format,” he said.

“He struggled in Australia and the home series recently but is still scoring runs in ODIs. He will continue to score runs because he understands the pulse of this format very well. He is the greatest of all time. He and Sachin paaji (Tendulkar) are standing next to each other and no one is close to them for a long distance. So I don’t think he will have problems here,” Aakash Chopra concluded.