He was deliberately troubled: Rashid Latif blames BCCI for Virat Kohli’s lean patch

Virat Kohli (PC: Twitter)

Former Indian skipper Virat Kohli finally managed to put an end to his century drought of almost three years. In India’s last Asia Cup 2022 match against Afghanistan, the batter smashed a scintillating knock of 122* runs off just 61 balls including 12 boundaries and six maximums. With this much-awaited century, Kohli also announced his comeback.

There were a lot of concerns regarding Kohli’s form in international cricket. The batter had a poor run in the Indian Premier League 2022 and followed it up with a lean patch against England as well. However, a month-long break following the India tour of England proved to be a blessing in disguise for the batting maestro.

Notably, a lot has happened with Kohli on a professional level in the past year. He willingly submitted his resignation from T20I and Test captaincy while the Delhi-born was stripped off the leadership duties in the One Day Internationals. The relationship between him and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) also turned sour as the two gave contrasting statements regarding his removal from captaincy duties.

Sourav Ganguly’s arrival changed things for Kohli

Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif believes that the feud between Kohli and BCCI was one of the major reasons behind the former’s poor performance in the last year. The veteran believes that a lot of things conspired behind the scenes that the fans are unaware of. He also blamed Sourav Ganguly’s arrival in BCCI for the departure of Ravi Shastri as head coach.

Speaking on the Caught Behind YouTube channel, Latif said:

“They (India) took Dhoni as mentor in the World Cup. Just before that, he (Kohli) announced that he would step down as T20I captain. That was very shocking for us and we didn't know what was happening behind the scenes. Then, the team goes to South Africa, and there, Kohli left the Test captaincy as well. So a lot of things were happening. What I observe from all this is that Sourav's arrival triggered the change. It felt that a player who was at the high of his life was deliberately troubled.”

It seems that Kohli has decided to leave all the feud in the past and focus on his form. He is currently the highest run-getter in the Asia Cup 2022 and India will be expecting the 33-year-old to continue his brilliant run in the T20I World Cup 2022 as well.

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