Kohli needs to become 'free-flowing personality' again: Yuvraj

In the ongoing IPL, Virat Kohli’s poor batting form has been a talking point. Several ex-cricketers have reacted to the former Indian captain’s lack of runs and the latest to offer advice is World Cup-winning all-rounder Yuvraj Singh.

Kohli, who gave up Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) captaincy after the last IPL, is yet to score a half-century in nine matches thus far in this year’s Twenty20 league. He has scored 128 runs in nine games at an average of 16.

Also read: Shastri’s advice for Kohli: Pull out of an IPL to prolong international career

For more than 100 matches, across formats, he has not registered a three-figure mark. In IPL 2022, he has already collected two successive ducks. Fans are worried over his form.

Yuvraj, Kohli’s former teammate in India and at RCB, has said that the right-handed batsman needs to become a “free-flowing personality” again in order to rediscover his batting form.

“I think he needs to go back to his younger days and think of how he was as a person. He was a free person, a chilled-out person. He needs to look back at those days. Obviously, he is also not happy, and people aren’t too, because we have seen him setting bigger benchmarks, scoring hundreds after hundreds. But this happens to the best players,” Yuvraj told Sports18 TV channel.

Also read: Out-of-form Kohli speaks to Lara

He added, “Virat needs to become a free-flowing personality again. If he can change himself and be like how he was earlier that will reflect in his game. He has proved himself to be the best of this era and believes in a strong work ethic and that has brought the best out of him over the years.”

Earlier, former India coach Ravi Shastri had suggested Kohli should take a break from cricket. Ex-England captain Kevin Pietersen was of the opinion that Kohli should not play cricket for six months. However, RCB’s head coach Sanjay Bangar has backed Kohli to come good in the rest of IPL 2022.