Mark Butcher's solution for England's Kohli problem
Former English player Mark Butcher has praised Virat Kohli calling him unstoppable stating that batting second was the only way for Eoin Morgan to stop Kohli from handing England another defeat. Butcher also advocated a recall for Liam Plunkett stating that his pace could cause Kohli a few problems.
"The man at the moment is very much unstoppable but I suppose for England and Eoin Morgan win the toss and your chasing would be a very good start," Butcher said in an interview with espncricinfo.com.
"The question that will be on the lips of all the England players and supporters right now is how to stop Virat Kohli? He's now made 17 ODI centuries in run chases equalling Sachin Tendulkar's record in less than half the amount of matches."
Kohli has averaged 120 in India since the start of 2016 and has been a constant thorn on the English side in the ongoing series. Not only was he instrumental in their 4-0 Test hammering, he also played the anchor role in the first ODI win in Pune. Butcher put England's poor showing down to the fact that the Europeans don't possess a world class bowler, spinner, or pacer in their ranks.
"Other than that in terms of his form I'm not entirely sure there is a weakness there particularly on pitches at home and particularly given that England do not possess high-quality spinners or real pace bowlers. Now that will be one area where I think that England might be looking to have a go at Kohli in these coming matches," Butcher added.
When asked if England had anything in their arsenal that could be used to disrupt the Indian captain's excellent run of form, Butcher did have a name. Surprisingly, he mentioned Liam Plunkett as the player who could trouble Kohli citing the 31-year-old's pace.
"Liam Plunkett, if available, might be the man to be thrown the ball to come in and rough up the Indian captain. But without that extreme pace you're looking for him to make a mistake or perhaps even get bored but at the moments he looks as though he's going to do anything but getting bored and making huge quantities of runs against the Englishmen," Butcher said.
The second ODI is scheduled on Jan 19 at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack.