'Virat Kohli has not played..': Sanjay Manjrekar breaks his SILENCE on star Indian batter' poor form

Star Indian batter Virat Kohli is going through one of the toughest phases in international cricket, with runs hard to come by. The former India captain had a terrible outing on the India tour of England. Not forget, his had a average show in IPL 2022 as well. It has been more than 3 years since Virat scored an international ton and the fans still await his 71st century. He has been stuck on 70 centuries for a long time now. Virat is currently on an international break after England series. He is not playing the limited overs series vs West Indies and won't be part of India squad for Zimbabwe ODIs. 

Many former captains and experts believe that he is doing the right thing by going away from the game for a while. But not former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar, who said that Virat can only get better by playing as many games as possible. By citing Bhuvneshwar Kumar's example, Manjrekar said that the India pacer was not in good form a while back but he has now find his groove back and he has done so by not missing any chance playing for India.  

Speaking on SPORTS18’s daily sports news show Manjrekar said, "Bhuvneshwar Kumar recently gave an interview, and he is at his peak at the moment. Eighteen months back, we thought he may not have an international career. But, he has bounced back superbly and is a certainty to make the T20 world cup squad. And he said, the more I bowl, the more I got my rhythm. I think they should have played Virat Kohli in every International match possible, whatever the format because Virat has had his breaks. People are advocating that he should take some breaks and he's had his breaks."

My favourite shade of blue __ pic.twitter.com/K6nR1sJMd7 — Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) July 26, 2022

Manjrekar added that Kohli can come out of the bad patch by not taking breaks but by playing more. "If you look at the last two years, he's not played a lot of International cricket. Maybe there's some logic there that we don't know about. Maybe they had a chat with Virat Kohli, but my personal view is the more Virat Kohli would’ve played and especially these matches would've been better for him and Bhuvneshwar Kumar clearly has said like it is with a lot of players when you're going through a rut, the best way to come out of the rut is by playing. So hopefully that will happen soon," he said. 

Kohli is expected to be back with the team in Asia Cup 2022, which will kickstart on August 27 with Sri Lanka taking on Afghanistan in the opening match. India will play Pakistan in the 2nd game and that could be the match Kohli returns to the side as he is not playing in any series before that.