Don’t get Joe Root or anyone else in your mind: Rajkumar Sharma advises Virat Kohli for England tour

Virat Kohli childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma reckons it is imperative for his ward to not think about individual rivalry against England’s talisman batter Joe Root. The former England skipper is in prolific form in the last two years and he has scored a total of 10 centuries since 2020 whereas Kohli has managed to score none.

Root is now the number one Test batter in the rankings as he is batting out of this world. The right-hander has grabbed his opportunity with both hands and he has been a consistent performer for Three Lions.

On the other hand, Virat Kohli hasn’t been able to convert his starts in the recent past and he will look to turn the tables in the rescheduled Test match against England. Kohli scored 33 runs in the first innings of the four-day warm-up match against Leicestershire on Thursday.

“Currently it is required for Virat to play his natural game and make a big score, which he is searching for a long time. I have full hope that he will do that soon because it has been a long time,” Rajkumar told India News.

On the other hand, Kohli had scored his last Test century against Bangladesh in the pink-ball Test match in 2019 at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. Since then Kohli has failed to reach the three-digit mark in International cricket.

“It has not been seen often in Virat’s entire career that he has such a long lean patch, in terms of triple figures, he has definitely scored runs otherwise, but his conversion rate was exceptional earlier, once he used to reach 30-35 runs, everyone used to believe that he will score big, a hundred will definitely be scored but lately that has not happened,” he said.

Speaking on the individual rivalry between Virat Kohli and Joe Root, Rajkumar reckons the Indian batter should not think about it and his focus should be to score crucial runs for his team.

“Both are fantastic players. A healthy rivalry is always there at the back of the mind, that he has come close to you or has gone ahead of you, or you are close to the other person’s record. You definitely think about it while sitting in the hotel or the dressing room”

“You forget this rivalry when you go across the boundary line, then you only wait for the next ball and you have to see how to score your runs. You don’t get Joe Root or anyone else in your mind,” he said.

It will be imperative for India that Kohli bats at his best against England as the Ben Stokes-led team are in fine form. The rescheduled Test match will be played at Edgbaston from July 1.