‘Making it too hard to enjoy…’: Ricky Ponting advices Virat Kohli to ‘Take a Break’ in order to surpass his Lean patch
Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting has advised Virat Kohli to take a break from playing, in order to rediscover his energy. In five matches of the recently concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Kohli scored just 190 runs at an average of 23.75. In the nine innings he played, he got caught behind eight times.
According to Ponting, Kohli is trying too hard which has been resulting in him being hurt. After he nicked the ball to the slips during India’s second innings of the Sydney test, he was spotted expressing his frustration.
“…The challenge is, and I can see it with Virat now, you can see how much he wants it. He’s trying so hard that actually makes batting harder. The harder you try sometimes with batting, the less success you’re going to have. I started thinking more about not getting out rather than scoring runs and that might sound strange but that’s what it was. I was trying to be so perfect set the right example play exactly the way my team needed me all the time but when I was playing my best I didn’t think about any of that.,” Ponting told ICC.
“I just walked out and thought about scoring runs. I can just see a little bit of that with Virat now. Even the way that he’s getting out you can see he doesn’t want to be playing at those balls he’s trying not to do it but he’s there’s some mental block there that’s making him feel for that one outside the off stump,” he added.
According to Ponting, Kohli needs a kind of vacation from the game, as the star batter is unable to play freely because of the pressure of expectations and ongoing failure.
“A break can only help the Indian legend. He had a mental break (in the past) where he stepped away for a while and then came back and find the love for the game again. So right now it just seems like that real love of the game for him is not there because he’s making it too hard to enjoy. So if he wants to continue playing Test match cricket, he might just need to have a little spell for a while, find the love for the game again,” Ponting told ICC.
After India had an England tour in 2022, Kohli had been in a similar situation where he could not perform well, and hence he took a 42-day vacation. The star batter stated that it was the first time in his career where he had not touched the bat for 30 days. After that he made a comeback in the sport and had impressive outcomes, which might happen once again if he goes on according to the advice of the former Australian captain.
The post ‘Making it too hard to enjoy…’: Ricky Ponting advices Virat Kohli to ‘Take a Break’ in order to surpass his Lean patch appeared first on Cricket Country.