‘Won’t defend Kohli’ – Former RCB teammate scrutinises Virat Kohli’s Sri Lanka series

Team India endured a hard outing in the recently concluded ODI series against Sri Lanka. The Men in Blue tie the first ODI despite needing just one run from two wickets to win the series opener. However, Sri Lanka bounced back in the second and third ODIs and defeated strong visiting sides to create history. In addition to this, all three games saw the Indian batters struggle a lot against the spinners. 27 wickets were taken by Sri Lankan spinners throughout the series, while the visiting sides failed to bundle them out even once in the three games.

On the tricky surfaces in Colombo, the Indian batters failed to chase down the total across all three matches, with even batting master Virat Kohli struggling to make runs through the series despite having great experience on such tricky pitches. Virat Kohli made 24, 14, and 20 runs, which sparks controversy over his game against the spinners. The Indian batters were looking out of form after Rohit Sharma’s great start. Following the same, former India cricketer Dinesh Karthik feels that the Men in Blue suffered owing to the turn in the track.

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I’m not going to defend Virat Kohli here, but playing spin here is very hard: Dinesh Karthik

The Indian wicketkeeper batter accepted that the overs between 8 and 30 were extremely hard and challenging, especially with the new ball. The former RCB stalwart feels that it was one of the toughest pitches to play on, especially against the spinners. The cricketer turned commentator revealed that he is not defending former India skipper Virat Kohli but said that playing against the spinner was hard.

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“In this series… let’s admit. Be it Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma or anyone else. With a slightly semi-new ball, between overs 8-30, it’s hard work. Nothing to worry about. Not too many pitches work that way, but it’s been a tough pitch to play spinners. I’m not going to defend Virat Kohli here, but playing spin here is very hard,” Karthik said on Cricbuzz.

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