‘To say this to Virat Kohli…’: India coaching staff’s major flaw exposed by ex-bowling coach

India’s forgettable performances since their 2024 T20 World Cup victory has put pressure on a number of individuals, most notably captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Gautam Gambhir. The persistent problems that seem to be plaguing the Indian batters in the series against New Zealand and Australia has brought Gambhir’s coaching staff under the scanner. Now, Bharat Arun, the former bowling coach who engineered a period of dominance particularly in the pace department in the Indian team, said that the current coaches may not have the stature or confidence to give inputs to big names like Virat Kohli.

Arun said that Kohli questions advice from the coaches when they ask him to change something because of the immense success he has had in the past while following that routine. “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 said in a Youtube interview to former batter S Badrinath.

Arun recalled how advice from Ravi Shastri helped Kohli turn around his fortunes after a forgettable tour of England in 2014. “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.

“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.

India looking to put woeful run behind

Since Gambhir took over from Rahul Dravid as head coach of the side after the T20 World Cup, India have lost an ODI series to Sri Lanka for the first time since 1997, lost 3-0 in a Test series at home to New Zealand – a resulted that set up a number of unwanted firsts, and conceded the Border-Gavaskar Trophy to Australia for the first time in a decade.

India have now announced their squad for the upcoming T20I series against England. Mohammed Shami, whose services India missed in Australia, will make a comeback while Yashavi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant and Shubman Gill have not been included. Shami last played for India during the ODI World Cup in 2023; he made his return to cricketing action last year in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, and eventually played for Bengal in the Ranji Trophy, too.