Former England spinner, Monty Panesar reckoned that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) might be under pressure regarding keeping Virat Kohli on the national team. Of late, the 33-year-old Kohli hasn’t been able to play mat-winning knocks for Team India and he has been struggling to get among the runs.

Monty Panesar drew parallels between Kohli with legendary footballer Cristiano Ronaldo and said that both sportsmen have massive fan followings in their careers. Panesar felt that India is only carrying forward with Kohli as leaving the right-hander out may hamper their sponsorship deals.

During a recent chat with Times of India, Monty Panesar said, “It’s like Cristiano Ronaldo. Whenever Ronaldo plays for Manchester United, everyone’s watching football. Virat Kohli is the same. He has got a huge following and attraction.”

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He further added, “Are BCCI under pressure too, regardless of whatever the result and role Virat Kohli has to play, to keep the sponsors happy? That’s probably the biggest question. They can’t drop him or afford to drop him because they’ll probably lose huge financial sponsorship.”

The former spinner clearly mentioned that Virat Kohli’s marketability is high and the BCCI needs to be careful while deciding his position in the national setup.

Monty Panesar elaborated, “The difficulty here is that he is the most marketable cricketer in the world. Fans love him a lot. We all just love Virat and his intensity. Sometimes, it’s borderline, but he’s very much admired in England. So, from the BCCI’s perspective, they’ve got to sit down and decide.”

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On Thursday, Kohli got off to a decent start in the Lord’s ODI against England. He smashed southpaw fast bowler, Reece Topley for three fours and looked good to get a big score. But David Willey found his outside edge to cut short his stay in the middle.