Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar on Tuesday took to Twitter to impart some advice to India skipper Virat Kohli ahead of the first ODI of the three-match series against England. And he remarked that it’s something Kohli can learn from former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Manjrekar tweeted that Kohli needs to accept the fact that the public will react to the performance of players and teams accordingly, and a player or team will face criticism from fans and cricket enthusiasts if they underperform. Similarly, a player or team will receive praise from the public if they perform well.
He further advised Kohli to accept this reality calmly and with maturity, “like Dhoni did”.
“Outside talk which Virat calls nonsense is basically public reacting to a public performance. And it’s always been the same- Praise when you do well, critique when you don’t. Virat must learn to accept this age-old reality with calmness & maturity. Just like Dhoni did,” he tweeted.
Outside talk which Virat calls nonsense is basically public reacting to a public performance. And it’s always been the same- Praise when you do well, critique when you don’t. Virat must learn to accept this age old reality with calmness & maturity. Just like Dhoni did.
— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) March 23, 2021
Manjrekar’s comments came after Kohli brushed aside concerns over K.L. Rahul’s form. Rahul has been struggling with the bat since the recently concluded T20I series, which India won 3-2. The 28-year-old could manage to score figures of 1, 0, 0, and 14 in the five-match series before being dropped for the final T20I.
“From the first to the last day of my career, all this outside talk has been nonsense to me. Who says what and why about a player, what’s the motive behind it, what’s the thinking behind it, it’s better that all that remains outside because we’re not going to let it enter our system even in the future,” Kohli had said.
On Rahul’s form, Manjrekar said that while the cricketer has talent and class, he gets bogged down by failures. He further said that the ODI series will be a good opportunity for Rahul to regain his confidence.
“K.L. Rahul is mentally, an enigma. My reading is that failures affect him much than some of the other players. He’s got the class and he’s got the talent and when he is playing well, he is riding that confidence. But a few failures, he suddenly loses his basic game,” he said.
“Rishabh Pant, the whole of last season, remained out of form and this has happened to a lot of good players. So this will allow K.L. Rahul some time and allow him to get back some of his shots and self-confidence back. More than getting his form, it’s about his getting his self-confidence back. The 50 overs, yes does allow you that, but with K.L. Rahul you just wait and see whether he uses this opportunity,” he added.
