After top-scoring for India in the T20 World Cup 2024 final against South Africa on June 29 in Barbados, Virat Kohli was back in action after a month-long break during the three-match ODI series between India and Sri Lanka earlier this month. But in the three matches played at R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, the star batter failed to fire, as a result of which India suffered shocking defeats in the second and third ODI by 32 and 110 runs, respectively.
Kohli, who is the third leading run scorer in ODIs, amassed a total of 24 runs in the series opener played on August 2 and then scored 14 and 20 runs in the next two matches, which India lost by 32 runs and 110 runs, respectively, on August 4 and 7.
There were high expectations from Kohli in the ODI series against Sri Lanka, but he looked off-colour and was trapped in front of the wickets in all three matches.
Kohli’s poor show with the bat also invited criticism from the fans, who were not happy with India’s poor batting in the three 50-over matches. But his former RCB teammate Dinesh Karthik has come up to his defence by saying that it was tough to bat in Sri Lanka.
During a Cricbuzz show, Karthik was asked about Kohli’s batting and his LBW dismissals, to which he said there’s nothing to worry about.
“It’s been a tough pitch to play spin in this series, let’s admit that first. Be it Virat Kohli, be it Rohit Sharma, or be it anyone else. With the slightly semi-new ball between overs about 8 to 30, it’s been hard work. It’s nothing to worry about. Not too many pitches work that way, but it’s been a tough pitch to play spinners. I’m not going to defend Virat Kohli here, but I can tell you that playing spin was very hard,” Karthik said.
Kohli had a chance to break Sachin Tendulkar’s record and become the fastest batter in the world to score 14,000 runs in ODIs during the series, but he wasn’t able to achieve the objective and now has to wait till January 2025 to cross the 14,000-run mark in the 50-over format of the game.
Comments
0 comment