Does Virat Kohli listen to coach’s suggestions in Indian team? Ex-bowling coach Bharat Arun makes big statement

The recent form of Virat Kohli with the bat has been a major talking point ahead of the India’s squad selection for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 that is starting next month. A former world No.1 batter across formats, Kohli has by far dominated world cricket with his bat in the last decade. His 765 runs in the 2023 ODI World Cup speaks volumes of hunger that the former India captain possessed even at the age of 35.

However, the past one year hasn’t gone well for the stylish right-hander with Kohli scoring 417 runs (in 10 Tests), 180 runs (10 T20Is) and 58 runs (3 ODIs) in 2024. In fact, the major highlight for Kohli in the last year was his fifty in the T20 World Cup final and the hundred against Australia in the Perth Test, both of which came in a winning cause.

One of the major troubles Kohli faced in recent times was against the deliveries bowled outside off-stump. In fact, in eight out of nine innings in Australia in the recently-concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT), Kohli fell to his outside off stump trap, calling criticism in the process.

Even former India captain Sunil Gavaskar urged Kohli to follow Sachin Tendulkar’s Sydney template from 2004, when the Master Blaster faced the same problem. Tendulkar, back then, played the waiting game and believed in art of leaving and went on to make a 241.

Surprisingly, Kohli committed the same mistakes again and again. That’s where a coach’s role comes into play who would suggest what’s going wrong with the technique and work on those.

Does Kohli take feedback from coaching staff?

Former India bowling coach Bharat Arun opined the currently Indian coaching staff does not have the audacity to talk to Kohli about his batting flaws. In a recent interview with another former India cricketer Subramanium Badrinath, Arun was asked how does Kohli takes feedback about his batting from the coaching staff.

“Virat will ask questions when you suggest, obviously he’s world no.1 batter. He will ask how are you saying this, what mistake did I make? I scored runs, why did you not tell me at that time?” Arun told Badrinath.

Arun cited Ravi Shastri’s example from 2014 England tour. Notably, Arun was the India bowling coach when Shastri was the head coach. Shastri, Arun and others had taken the charge of the Indian team following Duncan Fletcher’s departure at that time.

He recalled, “Shastri told him, ‘You stand on the leg stump and the ball swings in England. You cannot stand here, stand on the middle stump, come out of the crease. You are the owner of the crease. Kohli followed this in Australia and scored four centuries’”, revealed Arun.

Arun felt to talk to a world class batter like Kohli, one needs to have a big stature like Shastri. “To say this to Kohli, one needs to have the kind of stature and confidence that Ravi Shastri had, which I think the current coaching staff does not have,” concluded Arun.

Besides Gambhir, the rest of Indian coaching staff include Morne Morkel (bowling coach), Ryan ten Doeschate (assistant coach) and Abhishek Nayar (batting coach). With the Champions Trophy coming up, its high time Gambhir should talk to Kohli, like Shastri did 10 years back.

What’s stopping Gambhir to speak to Kohli?

It shouldn’t be forgotten that although Kohli and Gambhir have shared the same Indian dressing room for close to six-seven years and are back again in 2024, the duo didn’t go well with each other after their verbal spat in the Indian Premier League in 2023. Although it looks from outside that they have sorted their issues, what’s going on inside, those two can only explain.