Former India captain Kapil Dev, on Thursday, minced no words in urging under-fire Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to get more practice ahead of the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Test series. His comment came amid criticism over the performance of the two senior batters in the recently-concluded Test series against New Zealand, where India suffered a humiliating 0-3 whitewash.
Kohli scored just 93 runs against New Zealand, at 15.50, his worst average in a home contest in seven years, while Rohit incurred back-to-back lows. After managing just 42 runs in two Tests against Bangladesh, the captain scored 37 runs against the Kiwis, both featuring among his worst performances on home soil.
The shambolic show soon sparked questions over their lack of preparation and the decision to skip the Duleep Trophy in preparation for the Test calendar, while few experts even reckoned that the impending tour of Australia, which will comprise five Tests, will be a make-or-break series for the two.
Kapil, in an interaction with CricketNext, urged the two senior batters, along with those who incurred a disappointing show against New Zealand and Bangladesh, which includes the likes of KL Rahul and Sarfaraz Khan, to go back to their fundamentals and increase their number of practice sessions.
“Go back to the basics. Practice and practice and practice. If you say I will improve by sitting in the room, then it is not going to happen. If you are going through a rough time, just practice more. The more you practice, the better it will be for you,” Kapil Dev said.
How Rohit and Kohli have fared in Australia tours?
The 37-year-old has been Down Under on three tours, playing seven matches to score 408 runs at 31.38, laced with three fifties. However, he featured in two different roles across the three series. In his first two visits – 2014/15 and 2018/19, Rohit was entrusted with middle-order roles, while in 2021, he played as an opener.
Kohli, on the other hand, has been part of four Test series in Australia, dating back to 2011. He played 13 matches overall, scoring 1352 runs at 54.08 with six tons and four fifties. His most stand-out performance was in 2014/15, when he notched up 692 runs at 86.50, with four tons and a fifty. Not to forget, it was during this series when he took over the Test captaincy midway through the tour as MS Dhoni announced a sudden retirement from the format.
