IND vs SA: Virat Kohli’s POWER GAME is back, says former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar

Former India captain Virat Kohli signed off from the Asia Cup 2022 with his first international century in more than 1,000 days. Kohli has carried on his form into the T20I series against Australia, which India managed to win 2-1. The Royal Challengers Bangalore batter scored a match-winning 63 off 48 in the third T20I in Hyderabad on Sunday (September 25) to set up six-wicket win for Team India.

Former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar believes that Kohli’s confidence is growing with every match. “See, right from the Asia Cup every match that he got runs, not just the runs, there was some improvement coming. I think the power game is back, he’s trusting his power game. There was a time when he was getting runs but his power game was not coming at his beck and call, that is starting to happen,” Manjrekar said speaking exclusively on SPORTS18’s daily sports news show ‘Sports over the top’.

“He’s dispatching good balls for big boundaries and sixes. It’s all about confidence, this is a guy who’s damn self-confident and drives himself to excellence but for long-time runs weren’t coming and his confidence was tender. But during the Asia Cup, slowly and steadily, certain things start to happen, the pull shots came in, and the sixes started going more into the stands than just going over the rope as it was going in the IPL. So, the pieces falling back to frame the perfect picture. Now it’s all about putting all these kinds of performances in the main event,” he added.

A duel that can determine the fate of Mastercard T20I Trophy #INDvSA! _@ImRo45 or @NgidiLungi - who will come out on top in the battle of the World No. 1 T20I side & unbeaten __?#BelieveInBlue | Starts Sep 28 | Star Sports & Disney+Hotstar pic.twitter.com/LpMoCyqHTi — Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) September 27, 2022

Kohli is now getting ready to face South Africa in a three-match series beginning in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday (September 28). Manjrekar believes that one of the reasons for Bhuvneshwar Kumar struggling in the series against Australia is because of playing ‘too much cricket’.

“With Bhuvneshwar Kumar, it’s never a very simple answer but you’ve got to give one of the simple answers and one of the main reasons why Bhuvi seems to be off the boil – is playing too much cricket. In the sense, that he’s played all the matches coming into this series as well. The Bhuvneshwar Kumar I have seen over the years, he’s not one of the strongest guys going around, he’s not somebody who takes a lot of workload, he plays one format and hardly any other,” Manjrekar felt.

“He’s somebody if you notice, barring injury, if he comes later a break to play in any tournament, he’s at his best in the first few games. So, I’m going to put down Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s current performance to just match fatigue. Harshal Patel has limitations as a seam bowler but India must look as one of the third seaming options and must look at a couple of others as options and I keep stressing on Mohammed Shami as the other option,” he added.