IND vs ENG: Virat Kohli fit to play second ODI against England, confirms batting coach Sitanshu Kotak

IND vs ENG: Virat Kohli fit to play second ODI against England, confirms batting coach Sitanshu Kotak

India batting coach Sitanshu Kotak confirmed that Virat Kohli is fit to play the second One-Day International match against England on Sunday at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack.

Kohli missed the first ODI due to a knee issue. “Kohli is fit. He is good to go. He is here and training with us,” said Kotak here on Saturday.

Kotak was not concerned about captain Rohit Sharma’s form in ODI cricket. While downplaying Rohit’s poor form in red-ball cricket, Kotak cited the skipper’s statistics in the 50-over format to underline his point.

“I don’t think there is any problem. In the last three one-dayers (before the series opener in which he scored two in Nagpur), Rohit scored 56, 64 and 35 (against Sri Lanka), nearly averaging 50-plus. We are talking about a player who has got 31 ODI hundreds. When he keeps scoring runs in back-to-back matches, nobody asks, ‘When will he fail?’” said Kotak.

Kotak said if a player went through a lean patch, “I don’t think I would be worried about their forms. Australia Test series – that was a tough time. About the one-dayers, the way he batted in the last three one-days before the first match (in Nagpur), he has always been scoring runs. So, not really so much concern about that.”

Kotak did not give too much importance to India losing two wickets early in Nagpur. “(Shubman) Gill, Shreyas (Iyer) and Axar (Patel) batted really well. You are going to lose some wickets, whether it’s openers or middle-order. As a batting unit or as a team, there were a lot of positives – the way we batted, the way we showed our intent.”