The Indian skipper, Virat Kohli, is going through a lean patch in the ongoing tour of New Zealand. He has managed to cross a 50+ score just once in nine innings that he has played across the formats. After the unprecedented failure in the ODI series, everyone was quite sure of Kohli, making it big in the first Test. But that didn’t turn out to be the case as he was dismissed cheaply in both the innings.
However, former Indian opener, Gautam Gambhir seems to have a cure to solve the lean patch of Virat. He has advised Virat to channelize his competitive juices to shrug off his lean patch. Gambhir, who was known for his in your face attitude, gave an example of how he did the same when his approach was questioned after his duck in the first innings of the 2007-08 Ranji final against UP.
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In his column for TOI, Gambhir recalled, “I was out for zero in the first innings. I had to cop a lot of criticism about my technique and temperament. I came into this game reasonably focused, as winning the Ranji Trophy was one of my childhood dreams.”
He further added, “But I was not as charged up, besides I had a good number of friends in the UP team which left my intensity sub-par. This criticism, led by one of the national selectors, left me extremely angry. It now seems I needed that anger as till then I was not really ‘in’ that contest.”
Referring to Virat’s statement ahead of the New Zealand tour when he said that Kiwis are too nice a people to even think of revenge, something Gambhir reckons doesn’t work with the Indian skipper, who- as an emotionally charged person- thrives when he is spurred up.
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Describing the same, Gambhir added, “From a distance, it seems Virat Kohli is in a similar situation. He (Kohli) is at his best when he is riled up when he has a contest. Revenge may be an exaggerated thought but I am not sure of “nice guys” emotion either. I think Kohli is wired up to be that emotionally charged sportsperson who can play a cover drive with the calmness of a sage and then lead his troops like an animated cheerleader.”
