“People only see hundreds, we want match-winning knocks from Virat Kohli”- Rahul Dravid ahead of India-England 5th Test


“People only see hundreds, we want match-winning knocks from Virat Kohli”- Rahul Dravid ahead of India-England 5th Test

Rahul Dravid and Virat Kohli

Former India captain and current head coach Rahul Dravid stated that it doesn’t matter if Virat Kohli complete a century or not. All the team needs from him is a good knock in need. Kohli hasn’t scored a century since November 2019. David’s comment came ahead of the rescheduled India-England fifth Test match starting from July 1 at Edgbaston. India will be looking to win a series on English soil for the first time since 2007, where the team was led by Rahul Dravid only.

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“As players you go through these kind of phases. I don’t think you need motivation to be very honest. Don’t think in Virat’s case it is lack of motivation. You go through phases like this at times. Sometime you bat well…it’s not so much about focussing on those three figures but you know even a 70 in a difficult wicket in Cape Town…when we played at Cape Town, I thought that was very good innings,” Dravid said in response to a question in a press conference ahead of the rescheduled fifth Test against England.

“From a coach’s perspective, we only want contributions from him, we want match-winning contributions for him, whether that’s a 50, that’s a 60 on a wicket like that. Maybe tomorrow’s wicket, may be a 60 or a 70 could end up being a match-winning performance or it may not, we might need a big score for him. But yeah, from our perspective, there is not a lot of focus on three figures and whether he gets it,” he said.

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“Kohli is on the right side of 30”- Rahul Dravid

Dravid
Virat Kohli

Kohli is nearing 34 and many have believed that growing old is affecting his knocks but Rahul Dravid doesn’t agree on this. He opined that Kohli is on the right side of 30.

“I think he is an incredibly fit guy. He is one of the most hard-working guys I have ever come across. His desire and hunger. His whole attitude in looking after himself, his preparation and even just the way he just played the game at Leicester, batting in those conditions, scoring the kind of 50, 60 that he did,” Dravid said.

“He was keen on batting against Bumrah and all of these guys. So, I think he is ticking all the right boxes. He is doing what he needs to do to sort of come out of it,” he added.

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