They Have To Think About Their Good Performances Of The Past - Zaheer Khan's Advice To India's Struggling Middle-Order Trio

Former India pacer Zaheer Khan suggests India’s out-of-touch batting trio of Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, and Ajinkya Rahane, look back at their successful moments and try to factor out what they did right which they aren’t doing currently.

The three batsmen came under scrutiny after they failed to make their presence felt on the scoreboard in the ongoing first Test against England. But, all three of them have been inconsistent for a while now.

Since the start of 2020, Virat Kohli averages 23 with the bat, Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara have averages of 27 and 25.28 respectively in the same period. Only Rahane has recorded a century – at MCG against Australia – among the three since the start of last year.

“I would advise them not to look at their recent stats. There is no point in it because they would not gain confidence from it. They have to think about their good performances of the past. And what factors in their game worked for them during those good times that led them towards success,” Zaheer Khan said while speaking with Cricbuzz. 

They should fixate their minds on positive things: Zaheer Khan

Zaheer Khan further advises India’s revered trinity to focus their minds on the positive aspects of their game instead of pondering on the negative ones as they are out of form as all three of them are under the pump.

The 42-year-old World Cup winner reckoned the three batsmen are good enough to return to their best even in difficult batting conditions, but they need to iron out their technical flaws.

“If they feel there are any technical deficiencies in their batting, then they can take assistance from Ravi Shastri or batting coach and work on them in the net sessions. Everyone does it as it is a usual process.

“If we talk only about confidence, it is not like if you have performed in these conditions in the past, you can’t do it again or better your previous performance. Rather than concentrating on negative aspects, they should fixate their minds on positive things. Because a batsman is always one knock away from being in good or bad form,” added Zaheer Khan.

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