Hope There Is Someone Who He Trusts Completely - Robin Uthappa On How Virat Kohli Can Mentally Deal With Tough Phase

Former Indian cricketer Robin Uthappa wished that Indian batter, Virat Kohli, had someone that he could talk to about and not fear any judgment, especially when he is going through a tough phase like the current one.

Kohli hasn’t scored a century in nearly 30 months and his dry patch will be bothering him. He was India’s best all-format batter and the best in the world but after the pandemic hit, his run-scoring ability has dropped.

Speaking about how he can deal with a situation like this, Uthappa said he will need to trust someone completely and share the hard parts, i.e, the rough patch he is going through.

“Especially with athletes, there is power in vulnerability. You deal with it by expressing it, by talking about it. You find that one person who you feel comfortable with, who you completely trust, and where you know there’s not going to be any judgment, and you speak to them.”

“If you feel someone is off, then you ask them, ‘Hey, how are you? Are you okay? Do you want to talk about something? ‘ To have that empathy as a human being to ask, ‘Is everything fine?’”

“I really hope somebody is doing that for Virat Kohli, because it’s very hard for someone like him, the kind of thoughts that must be going through his mind.

“For someone of his caliber to not score a hundred for [nearly] three years, the ghosts that he must be dealing with must be immense. I truly hope that there is someone who he trusts completely that he’s having conversations with. These are very lonely battles that sportspeople go through,” Uthappa said on ‘Mind Over Medals’.

Kohli has been rested for India’s upcoming 3-match T20I series against Sri Lanka but he will return when they take on the Lankans in the 2-match Test series.

India’s T20I squad for the Lanka series:

Rohit Sharma (c), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Hooda, Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Harshal Patel, Md. Siraj, Sanju Samson (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Y Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Avesh Khan.

Also, Read – Never Once Has It Crossed My Mind That I Want Rishabh Pant’s Place And That’s Been The Case With Him Too – Ishan Kishan