AB de Villiers advises Virat Kohli to not get in individual battles with opposition amid poor form

Former South African captain AB de Villiers has advised Virat Kohli to not involve himself in individual battles against the opposition when he is searching for his personal form. Kohli could only gather 190 runs in five Test matches of the Border-Gavaskar series at an average of 23.75 and thus failed to deliver for the visitors.

India suffered a 3-1 loss in the series after suffering a six-wicket loss against Australia at the SCG on Sunday. 

Meanwhile, Virat Kohli was fined 20% of his match fees after he shouldered Australian debutant Sam Konstas in the fourth Test at the MCG. Kohli also had a go at the Australian crowd at the SCG on Sunday when he gestured that he doesn’t have ‘sandpaper’ in his pocket.

AB de Villiers said in a video on his X handle, “It takes a lot of character, a lot of hunger, lot of hours in the nets. I think the thing is to reset your mind, everytime. I think with Virat, he gets involved with the battle on the field. That’s one of his biggest strengths and it can also be a weakness. During this series, we saw him have individual battles with some of the players, the crowd got under his skin. Virat loves the fight, but when you’re not in the form of your life, it’s best to get rid of those things.”

“As a batter, it is to reset every single and realise every ball is an event and just forget about the bowler. I think sometimes Virat forgets about that because of his fighting spirit and the nature of the man wanting to be involved and show the whole of India he is there to fight for them.”

In nine innings on the Australia tour, Kohli was dismissed caught behind eight times and de Villiers said every batter has his own weakness.

“Of course, he can [overcoming outside off-stump weakness]. Every single batter in the world has got some sort of a weakness. For me it was the straight ball hitting my pads. Even towards the back end of my career and in the form of my life, all the experience that I needed to go out and score runs,” said AB de Villiers.

“I remember a series against England. I started off well and scored runs in Durban, everything was brilliant. Then I ran into James Anderson and Stuart Broad with the new ball.”

Kohli hasn’t been at his best in the last five years in Test cricket and he will need to turn the tables.