Anil Kumble believes Kohli is a victim of self-inflicted pressure with the latter putting himself under undue duress.
Anil Kumble believes that the competitive nature of Virat Kohli puts more pressure on the latter, which is not a good sign.
Anil Kumble, a former coach and captain of India, believes that Virat Kohli is “trying too hard” and that this is making it more difficult for him to rediscover form during a slump.
In his six ODI innings since the 2023 World Cup, Kohli has only amassed 137 runs with one half-century. Kohli hit 22 off 38 in India’s opening Champions Trophy 2025 match before losing to Bangladeshi legspinner Rishad Hossain in Dubai.
“Having been through a lean patch, so to speak, especially in white-ball cricket – he hasn’t had that kind of run for a long period of time – I feel he’s trying a bit too hard,” Kumble said.
“You have that in players who have been there and done that before and everyone sort of looks up to you saying he’s the guy who’s going to take the game away and he’s the one guy who is the important man in the team,” Kumble said. “When you have that kind of pressure and you have that kind of expectation, you suddenly start putting undue importance to all of that and then try hard to do well. When you do that, you’re not really relaxed.
“The best innings that I am sure he’s played, he’s not even thinking about all of that. The best bowling performances, you’re not even thinking about all of that.
“I think he’s trying a bit too hard. You can see that in the way he is going about his innings. He just needs to not worry about it. Rohit [Sharma] comes in there, has the freedom because there is plenty of batting and all of them are in great form. Similarly for Virat, he just needs to come in and not worry about anything else.”
Kohli’s last six dismissals have come to spin – five of them to legspinners. It is down to trying too hard to score runs than just working the ball around, Kumble said.
“To start off against spin, on surfaces like that, you need a lot of confidence. He’s certainly trying too hard to maneuver that,” Kumble said. “He’s a good player of spin when he’s in form, when he’s wanting to just knock singles off and keep rotating the strike. Now he’s trying too hard to score runs rather than just maneuver, and that’s been his game plan.
“All players go through tough moments in their career, but I get a feeling watching him bat, I think he is putting a lot more pressure on himself. he just needs to relax a little bit and not worry too much about the outcome of what happens on the field rather than just go out there and have the freedom to just go and play naturally what he does really well.”