Virat Kohli ready to help India win 2022 Asia Cup, T20 World Cup

While currently rested, Virat Kohli has said he is determined to help India win the 2022 Asia Cup and T20 World Cup.

"My main aim is to help India win the Asia Cup and the World Cup and for that, I am ready to do anything for the team," Kohli said in an interview with Star Sports.

Kohli will return to the team for the upcoming Asia Cup in late August. His recent performance during the tour of England makes his position with India questioned. The star batter, however, insisted he was ready to help the team claim Asia Cup and T20 World Cup titles.

Kohli was only able to score 11 and 20 in the fifth and final Test match against England at Edgbaston and continued to perform somewhat poorly in T20Is, where he only managed to score 12 runs in two innings. He followed this by scoring only 17 and 16 runs in a three-match ODI series against England.

He had a sub-par IPL 2022, where he scored 341 runs throughout 16 games at an average of 22.73 and a sub-par strike rate of 115.98. He only managed to score two half-centuries in the last T20I tournament. He has not scored a century in any format in nearly three years.

In need of more practice

Former Indian women's captain Anjum Chopra said during an interview with ANI News that Kohli had been doing everything he could to get back into the game. She insisted that it was only a matter of time before Kohli could perform as well as he used to.

"Virat Kohli himself knows what he needs. When you do not score as per your standards, you practice more. I am sure that he is practising, is doing, and will keep doing everything to back in form. The way international cricket goes, practice is the only way out,” Chopra said.

“A player can only try and make the effort. And a player like him must be trying and trying to get out of the slump. But sometimes, things do not go your way. The kind of adulation and focus he has had on him over the years, this dip was bound to happen sometime."

Kohli's replacement

Currently, Kohli’s position will be filled by Shreyas Iyer. Regardless, Kohli’s childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma said on DD Sports that no one could ever replace Kohli at no. 3 for the time being, although he also said that the team needed to groom the younger players. While Iyer is not the only choice to take them over, he commended Iyer’s skills.

“It is important. See, I don't think anyone can replace Virat Kohli at no.3 for some time, but we will have to develop youngsters at that position. And I think there will be many experiments on that position too. It isn't necessary that only Shreyas Iyer takes over that role,” Rajkumar said.

“He is a suspect against genuine fast bowling sometimes, especially against short-pitched deliveries. He has been dismissed on many occasions playing the short delivery in the past."

There have been reports that Kohli may decide to play in the Zimbabwe ODIs, which are scheduled for next month.