India's Virat Kohli, plays a shot during the first one-day international cricket match between India and Sri Lanka in Guwahati, India, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath) Ravichandran Ashwin said that Virat Kohli’s Test and T20 game was ‘mainly based’ on his success in the ODIs and due to the lack of that format in recent years has had an effect on the star batter’s form.
“ODI cricket is the place where he brought the genius in him to full flow. Many of them won’t understand this flow. After Covid, we are seeing more Test cricket and T20 cricket. ODI cricket is played very rarely. We are not getting the same flow of ODI cricket. Virat Kohli is one of those cricketers who has been playing continuously for a long time now,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
“So, a mental reset is really important for anyone. Sometimes, he has been given a break during some inconsequential series. But both his Test cricket and T20 cricket have been built mainly based on his ODI cricket success. In fact, when he is playing ODI cricket itself, he will get that Test routine and the Test flow. Our recent conversation was also about this topic only and he agreed with me. Both our team and him haven’t played many ODI cricket in the recent past. India won the first ODI comfortably, agreed,” he added.
Last year, Kohli had talked about how the long lean patch of runs had taken a toll on his mental health and how he was disturbed to find he wasn’t excited to play or practice. He had also said that when he took a break after the tour of England, he didn’t even touch his bat for a month.
More recently, Kohli scored his 73rd international ton against Sri Lanka in the 1st ODI in Guwahati leading India to victory. India would then travel to Kolkata and defeat Sri Lanka in the 2nd ODI and seal the series with one match still to go.
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