There was a time when Virat Kohli ruled the roster of cricket and no one would have come close to him. Even the finest got belted by him and it was a nightmare for the bowlers to bowl at a prime Virat Kohli.
However, since 2019, his form took a dip and slowly he started going from bad to worse and there was absolutely no salve to the kind of madness that started building around him. He was hardly finding his stride and everything he did was turning into ashes.
Now standing close to the middle of 2022, Virat has hit a slump lower than ever and his fans are kind of tired of waiting for him to bring out the big guns. In fact, a few believe that he is done and he is not coming back from the metaphorical exile that he has gone to mentally.
However, what can be the possible reasons for Virat’s landslide? Well, from naked eyes, three reasons are totally evident. Let us run you through the three most possible explanations of why the former Indian captain has been struggling so much. Feel free to add to it if you want.
Good vibes in the camp
@RCBTweets pic.twitter.com/rTTPHdoDzx
— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) April 22, 2022
#1 Playing for the crowd
The presence of the crowd has always been Virat’s strength and somehow after the world was struck by a pandemic, the games shifted to a bubble-bound atmosphere with closed doors being the norm. Irrespective of what happened off the field, Kohli always managed to find a way out and play his best. Now, it feels as if he is more prone to entertaining the audience instead of being himself. Despite falling too many times to a shot outside the off-stump, it feels as if he wants to make sure that he is answering the critiques, quoting that it is his cover drive that is his strength and the audience is wrong. Somehow, he is not the effusive artist that he used to be. He has simply devolved into a rigid batter who is struggling vehemently to break free the chains. He seems afraid and that is the biggest bane for an individual whose best weapon was his guts that would see him slay bowlers at will.
#2 His current sense of timing is a mess
Somehow, Virat’s timing recently has been all over the place and the former Indian captain who was known for his precision has either been committing too early into a shot or pulling the trigger way too late. Most of his dismissals have happened due to his mistimed reactions to a particular delivery. Now, this is a bit too technical to comment upon but on close observation, you would know that he is mostly getting caught in the off-side slip cordon because he is misreading the line of the ball and committing too early to a particular drive. While playing spin, he is just too slow to bring his bat down. Kohli was not known for exotic strikes. He has always been a practitioner of perfection and at the current moment, it feels that perfection is exactly what has been eluding him.
If you’re immersed in the joy of doing what you love, everything else is irrelevant.
— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) April 15, 2022
#3 A flailing body language
An athlete’s body language speaks volumes about him or her. Kohli used to have one of the best body languages in the cricketing fabric and now it somehow feels he is getting much softer instead of the aggressive undertone that he always housed. For him, it feels as if giving up seems to be a much more viable option instead of just hanging in there, biting the bullet and trying and moving forth. His eyes say that he is exhausted but then when a warrior dons the armour, unless he is done with his war, he never rests. Virat Kohli probably will have to batten up his hatches and fight the war again unless he decides to sheathe his sword once and for all.
