What is wrong with Virat Kohli?

Virat Kohli – down? Not at all.

Virat Kohli: The next best thing in Indian cricket; the future superstar of world cricket; the soon to be crowned captain! Putting those subtitles aside and coming to the main picture – What is exactly happening to him at the moment?

1,8,25,0,39,28 are not numbers that sound Kohli-like.

The prolific right-hander entered the series with high hopes of carrying forward his run making habit against England, the side that hardly resembled a unit a few months ago. He got the feel of the ball, settled in, was stroking the ball cleanly, even played some iconic shots in between, looked assured, but still, where is that big hundred he was talking about?

Everything was the same on the build-up to the series. As always, the Delhi batsman was high on confidence before these fixtures, even went on to claim that he knows his standards and requested the critics to stop reminding him how big the occasion is. But, things have not unfolded that very great for him, here in England.

The 25-year-old is getting increasingly restless every passing day and it showed in his reactions after his last dismissal to Moeen Ali. Yes, you read it right, Moeen Ali, a spinner whom everyone was expecting to get thrashed to all parts of the ground, is now currently the second highest wicket-taker for England in the series.

Where is Kohli going down

Caught second-slip, leg-before, caught keeper, bowled, caught first-slip, caught keeper. Any guesses?

He is unsure of his off-stump is the cry from the commentary team.

Normally, an ordinary batsman is expected to leave the balls outside the off stump to minimise the risk of nicking one behind. In another angle, it is also a strategy employed to judge how the pitch behaves, in case if you are new to the crease. But, once you are set, those full length deliveries or the ones which you will normally put away in the limited-overs formats, presents itself in disguise as a red ball, you are bound to commit to those balls without any hesitation. To me, this is where he fails.

Giving a prod away from the body is not a scoring shot, one may argue.

He tends to get a feel of the ball in many of those occasions whenever the ball is pitched back of a length, as it was his strong scoring chances in other forms of cricket. To be honest, he is technically well equipped to deal with any kind of length the bowler bowls and hence leaving the ball is something of a negative approach, he may feel.

Many argue that it is a crime to go after wide deliveries. I will not agree to that. It is however unnecessary to do so. But, those were golden opportunities to get some runs under your belt and to keep the scoreboard ticking. Not every time can you wait for a bad delivery on the pads or the straighter ones to play with an open face.

Batsmen of Kohli’s standards won’t just limit themselves to that way of batting. They are tigers who hunt away from home, not the ones who wait for an insect to sit on the doorsteps to be swallowed in.

Patience is the key

But, repeated failures against those balls is consuming his patience and lowering his confidence in every innings. Every Indian fan is anxious to know the day when Kohli finds out the solution to control his tentative nature to go after those balls – it is all about self-control and mental strength. There is a wide opinion that he is very short tempered, but, Kohli has those above specified qualities in abundance.

It is high time that he decides to wait a little more and starts leaving the deliveries that mean no-harm and safely sees those through to the keeper. If that happens, you will not see another delivery that zips past the outside edge of his bat in this series again. Six innings is the longest gap in which he has not crossed 50 even once in Test cricket. The next is his 7th.

Dear Virat, just calm down champ, the day will arrive in a jiffy.