IND vs SA | Even greats like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid have gone through a lean patch, says Sanjay Bangar
Former India cricketer Sanjay Bangar has backed Virat Kohli saying that even greats like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid have gone through such a phase where they haven’t scored a hundred for a long time. Kohli scored his last international hundred in a pink-ball Test against Bangladesh in 2019.
India are scheduled to tour South Africa for three ODIs and three T20Is from December 26. The team will be looking forward to registering a historic series win in South Africa. The Test squad for the series has been announced and Virat Kohli will lead the team in red-ball cricket. Kohli has been struggling with his form since the last few matches. He scored last international hundred in 2019 in the pink-ball Test against Bangladesh. The cricketer has been struggling to score big since then. Also he has scored only 599 runs from 13 Tests at 26.04 after that Test.
Kohli’s century drought has been for 57 international innings. His form will be crucial for India in the upcoming South Africa series. Former India cricketer Sanjay Bangar has said that even greats like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid struggled for centuries at one point of their careers.
"Please don't say that time and again because I have said earlier as well that those are 57 innings including all formats. If you just look at the Test innings that he has played, the double hundred that he got against South Africa, it was in Pune I think, after that the run of hundreds has dried up. So it's been 22 or 23 innings," Bangar said on Star Sports show Game Plan.
"Even greats like Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid have gone through such a phase wherein they haven't scored a hundred for a long time. But it doesn't really mean that in the interim they haven't contributed to the team's cause.”
In the Test series against England in August/September , Kohli scored 218 runs in four Test matches with a couple of half-centuries. India was leading by 2-1 in the five match Test series but the final Test was cancelled due to Covid-19 pandemic and it is to be played next year. Bangar has stated that Kohli gave important contributions with the bat in the previous series.
"If you look at Virat Kohli in the previous series, he got a couple of very good half-centuries, he got a couple of very good forties and that helped the Indian team's cause," he said.
Rohit Sharma has been ruled out the Test series and Kohli will now have to decide the second opener along with KL Rahul for the Tests against South Africa.
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