Sanjay Manjrekar Shares His Thoughts On Virat Kohli Playing England Test Series

Indian batter Virat Kohli scored just 190 runs in nine innings in the recently concluded Test series against Australia. He was seen struggling for form and was dismissed repeatedly outside his off stump.

His modes of dismissal became a major talking point throughout the series. Former cricketers Sunil Gavaskar and Irfan Pathan spoke extensively about how he was getting undone outside his off stump.

Virat Kohli was getting sucked in by every Australian bowler outside his off-stump. Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins both exposed this alarming weakness of Kohli which has been his major mode of dismissal in the last five years.

With India out of the WTC final, they next play Test cricket against England in June-July. The Indian think tank have some time in their hands before this series which will kickstart India's next World Test Championship cycle.

Virat Kohli Should Be Picked For England Tests- Sanjay Manjrekar

Meanwhile, Sanjay Manjrekar while speaking to ESPN Cricinfo, backed Virat Kohli to play the England tour. However, he warned the Indian batter of his outside off-stump weakness that was on view against Australia.

"Virat Kohli should be [picked for England Test] in my mind. I think there should be a little better preparation for Virat Kohli. It can't be a Ranji Trophy game here - has to be going out there well in time, playing some serious county cricket," Manjrekar commented.

"Just because it's an iconic figure, you can't have a repeat of what happened in Australia. You see Virat Kohli also not being able to overcome his problems. You can give a two-Test guarantee and see if there is any possibility of that tremendous mind of his making something different happen this time," he further added.

Kohli had only one significant score of 100 in the second innings of the Perth Test which India won. He had scores of 7 and 11 in the Pink-Ball Test in Adelaide and 3 in Brisbane. In the final Test in Sydney, he scored 17 and 6 respectively.