Sunil Gavaskar asks for 20 minutes with out-of-form Virat Kohli

The legendary Sunil Gavaskar feels he can help the outofform Virat Kohli regain touch by sorting his batting woes especially his weakness outside off stumpKohli is enduring a wretched run with the bat and has failed to score a century since November 2019 He could manage just 76 runs from six innings across formats on the England soil which included the rescheduled fifth Test two ODIs and as many T20IsldquoIf I had about 20 minutes with him I would be able to tell him the things he might have to do It might help him I am not saying it will help him but it could particularly with regards to that offstump linerdquo Gavaskar told India TodaySunil GavaskarldquoHaving been an opening batter having been troubled by that line there are certain things that you try and dordquoKohlirsquos lean patch has led to calls for his ouster from the T20 World Cup team with even the legendary Kapil Dev voicing support for his exclusionAnxiety factorHowever many former and current cricketers including Babar Azam Kevin Pietersen and Shoaib Akhtar have backed him to come good in the upcoming gamesldquoIt goes back to the fact that his first mistake turns out to be his last Again just because he is not amongst the runs there is this anxiety to play at every delivery because that is what batters feel they have got to scorerdquo Gavaskar saidldquoYou look to play at deliveries that you otherwise wonrsquot But he has gotten out to good deliveries as well on this particular tourrdquoKohli has been rested for the limitedovers series against West Indies which includes five T20Is and three ODIsGavaskar also praised Rishabh Pant for batting responsibly in the third ODI against England ldquoRishabh Pant seems to have learned from his mistakes against South Africa He chased balls outside off stump to slog them over the leg side then but the way he batted with responsibility yesterday Sunday shows how well he paced his inningsrdquo Gavaskar saidAlso Read Former India pacer Sreesanth talks up his coaching abilitylsquoPant can absorb pressurersquoldquoThe way he smashed a flurry of boundaries towards the end showed that he is someone who can absorb pressure and then attack We will need to wait and see whether Pant is able to replicate this form in T20Is He might have found the right template to play whiteball cricketrdquoPant smashed a maiden ODI century against England at Old Trafford in Manchester to help India seal the threegame series 21This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever