Gautam Gambhir is afraid of Virat Kohli: Ex-Pakistan cricketer makes bold claim

Former Pakistan cricketer Basit Ali has advised Gautam Gambhir and the Indian team management to reshuffle Virat Kohli's batting order since he is not scoring runs. Kohli is currently batting at the crucial position of No. 4, which is often given to the best batter in the side.

Kohli is currently going through a rough patch with the bat in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy. He scored a hundred in Perth but has since not scored a single fifty-plus score in the next three Tests.

Basit even claimed that everyone in Team India is afraid of Kohli which is why his batting order is not shuffled at all as compared to Rohit Sharma whose batting position has shuffled. Rohit batted at No. 6 in the second and third Tests but opened the batting in Melbourne.

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Basit Ali's advice for Nitish Kumar Reddy

While speaking on his YouTube channel, Basit Ali spoke about Virat Kohli's poor form and how it is affecting India. He has a solution to tackle this situation and suggested Gautam Gambhir to move Kohli to the No. 5 spot and Nitish Kumar Reddy to No. 4 in the batting order.

"Now is the team to bring Nitish up at No. 4 and Virat Kohli at No. 5 because he is not able to score at No. 4. He's getting out on the same shot," Basit said.

While Virat Kohli is struggling for runs, young allrounder Nitish Kumar Reddy has been the find for India in this series. Reddy smashed his maiden Test ton in the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne and helped India recover from a precarious situation.

Gautam Gambhir is afraid of Virat Kohli: Basit Ali

Further speaking on the situation, Basit Ali made a bold claim that Gautam Gambhir and the team management are afraid of Virat Kohli which is why he has batted in the same position. He argued why Virat Kohli can't move down the order if Rohit Sharma's batting order can be shuffled.

“Perform nahi ho raha toh apna number toh neeche karo na. Rohit (Sharma) upar neeche kar raha hai, Virat (Kohli) ka koi nahi soch raha, kyunki darte hain naa sab (if you are not able to score then drop lower down the order; Rohit is doing that but nobody thinking about Virat because everybody's afraid),” Basit exclaimed.

Rohit Sharma didn't play the first Test in Perth but played in the next three matches. However, he too has looked woefully out of form. Rohit has scored just 31 runs in three Tests of this series at an average of 6.20.

Virat Kohli's numbers in BGT 2024-25

Virat Kohli's poor run with the bat has raised questions about his ability to play Test cricket. The talismanic batter has scored just 167 runs in the four Tests of the ongoing series at an average of 27.83.

Kohli has constantly faced troubles in the lines outside off stump and the Australian fast bowlers have exploited this weakness. With just one more Test remaining in the series, Kohli is under tremendous pressure to score runs.