Suresh Raina Defends Virat Kohli Poor Form: Former Indian cricketer Suresh Raina recently defended the lack of recent form of one Virat Kohli, claiming that a player of such talent and status cannot be judged on the basis of his performance in a single series.
So far, Kohli has had an underwhelming 2024. While he did win the Orange Cap in IPL 2024 by scoring 741 runs, he had been in the best form for the Indian Cricket Team. In the three OFIs he has played this year, he has scored 58 runs. The Delhi-based batter has also played in a lot of T20Is, including the whole of the 2024 T20 World Cup. This year, he has crossed the 50-run mark in the format only once, but that was in the World Cup final in a Player of the Match performance.
But it has been in Test cricket where Virat has disappointed the most. He has played six Test matches this year across two series. The first was a three-match home series against Bangladesh, while the other was a three-match series at home against New Zealand. In the 12 innings across these six matches, he has scored 250 runs at an average of 22.72.
In all these games, the ace Indian batter has only scored one half-century, which was in the first Test against the Kiwis in Bengaluru, where he scored 70 in the second inning.
Suresh Raina Defends Virat Kohli Poor Form
With such performances, Kohli has understandably been under attack by fans and critics. However, his former national teammate Suresh Raina has not come to Virat’s rescue.
In a recent interview with the Times of India, Raina reckoned that a player with the stature, records, and runs of Virat Kohli should not be judged based on the result of one series. He said,
“We need to give credit to New Zealand (for the whitewash). They played really well… Their cricketing ethics are very strong in every sport. They played better than us, had good spinners… but we couldn’t score much. Virat is doing really well, I think. We can’t judge him from one series.”
While yes, the 36-year-old has not had the best form in Test cricket in 2024, he has never been able to find the form in this format that he had before 2020. Since the start of the decade, his average in the format has been dropping year on year. And in the last five years, he has scored only two Test centuries.
As for the Indian Cricket Team, they recently suffered their first home Test series loss in 12 years when they lost 3-0 to New Zealand. This was also the first whitewash in a home Test series for a team of an independent India. They will now face Australia in the five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy Down Under.
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