Hopefully, Virat Kohli discovers his form sooner rather than later: Ajit Agarkar

Kohli – who relinquished his Test captaincy in South Africa – didn’t look his best in the ODI series against the Proteas, which Team India lost 0-3.

Speaking exclusively on Star Sports Show Game Plan ahead of the India-West Indies ODI series, Agarkar claimed Kohli’s form at the moment isn’t at his best.

“At the end of the day you’re only successful as successful your team is and if you don’t win, it eventually doesn’t matter how great a player you are out on the field, it’s not enjoyable playing in the team.

“We talk about different combinations before – Virat Kohli would be a key factor because of the kind of the player that he is but at the moment he isn’t at his best, which is a fact and the quicker he discovers his form it’s going to be that much easier for Rohit Sharma to then manage that thing because of what he can do on his own, Virat Kohli. Virat Kohli’s form is a concern, but we all know what a player he is. So, hopefully, he discovers his form sooner rather than later,” Agarkar added.

Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra analysed Kohli’s form and also explained how would like to see Virat adapt to Rohit Sharma’s brand of cricket, “From a personal and individual standpoint, you want to convert those 50s into 100s because you’ve got to save something for the rainy days as well. He’s not going through a bad patch of form, so to speak, in terms of runs, but when you see him bat, you don’t see the same Virat Kohli.

“He’s not imposing, he’s not dominating, he’s still scratching around, he’s scoring those runs and that’s what all great players do – we saw Sachin, Rahul – we’ve seen them accumulate runs, but he’s (Virat Kohli) not an accumulator, he’s an enforcer but he’s not there yet. But the one thing I actually want to see, is now Rohit Sharma will have his stamp of authority and the brand of cricket that he wants to play.

“Virat Kohli has to be apart of the same philosophy. And once you have a different philosophy in place, sometimes it just liberates you, because you are not really thinking about, ‘Ok, I need to score or I need to do this. This is what all of us have to do together.’ And that is what I am waiting to see, whether it unleashes and liberates Virat Kohli, no matter you get out on 50 but score that 50 off 55 balls, don’t worry about scoring a century, finishing games off, as a captain, you’ve done it all this while. It’s no longer your only job, your job description has changed a little,” Chopra added further.