Former Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga advised India star batter Virat Kohli to talk to cricketing legends like Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar or Rahul Dravid regarding his lean patch. He reckons that the former cricketers will surely help him out to get out of this phase. Kohli who missed the first ODI against England due to a knee injury played the second ODI where he got cheaply dismissed scoring just five runs.
Before playing against England, Kohli played for Delhi in a Ranji Trophy match against Railways, where he scored six runs. Kohli's domestic outing came after the batting great failed to perform in Australia during the five Test matches of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25. He scored 190 runs in five Test matches against Australia.
“I think what Kohli needs to do is speak to people like Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar or a Rahul Dravid. That’s what he can do. They can certainly help him out. For a player like Kohli who has scored so much of runs, I feel it’s best if that’s left to him. It’s a call that Kohli needs to take, so let him take it. Why always have the spotlight on him? It’s quite unnecessary I feel. It’s his decision, so let him take that," Ranatunga told The Telegraph.
Kohli's form will play a huge role in India's performance in the upcoming Champions Trophy 2025 as the star batter is arguably the ODI batter of this generation. The Champions Trophy is scheduled to start from February 19 in a hybrid model. Team India will start their campaign against Bangladesh on February 20 at Dubai International Stadium in Dubai.
India's Champions Trophy 2025 schedule
The teams are divided into two groups where India are part of group A alongside Pakistan, New Zealand and Bangladesh. The Men in Blue will start their campaign against Bangladesh on February 20. After that, the side will face arch-rivals Pakistan on February 23. India will face New Zealand in their last league match on March 2.
India squad for Champions Trophy 2025: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja.