SYDNEY: It has been a lull after storm for Indian cricket player Virat Kohli in the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup but his skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni stood firmly behind his deputy expressing confidence that he will come good on a big day as he is a “big occasion player”.
Kohli, who had four Test hundreds in four-match Test series scored a hundred in the Cup opener against Pakistan but since then had scores of 46, 33 no, 33, 44 no, 38 and 3 in the next six games.
Asked if it was a case of poor shot selection rather than good bowling from the opposition, Dhoni didn’t agree.
“I don’t think poor shot selection is the case. He is a dominant batsman, he loves playing his strokes. I don’t think he has batted badly at all,” skipper batted for Kohli during post-match press conference after the quarter-final win over Bangladesh.
“In fact Dhoni feels that it is unfair to expect Kohli to fire every time he goes out to bat just like he did during the Test series in Australia.
“Not that he has got century every time when he has gone out to bat but maybe we are relating to the Test series, and expect that he scores a hundred in each time he is out there in the middle,” the skipper wants to put an end to this unnecessary expectations.
For Dhoni, he is happy that Kohli is “focused on the process”.
“He is concentrating on process. And he is a big occasion player and would fire on a big day,” the skipper added. –PTI
