As there seems no answer for English bowlers at the moment for India skipper Virat Kohli, who is in terrific form – former England cricketer Mark Butcher has given a suggestion to his national side on how to stop the right-handed batsman from scoring freely.
“The question that will be on the lips of all the England players and supporters right now is how to stop Virat Kohli? He’s now made 17 ODI centuries in run chases equalling Sachin Tendulkar’s record in less than half the amount of matches,” Butcher told ESPNcricinfo.
The 44-year-old Surrey-born Butcher stressed that England should opt to field first after winning the toss in the second 50-over game at Cuttack on Thursday.
“The man at the moment is very much unstoppable but I suppose for England and Eoin Morgan win the toss and your chasing would be a very good start,” Butcher added.
Playing his first ODI as a full-time limited-overs skipper, Kohli equalled the former legendary batsman Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 17 hundreds in just 96 innings in successful run- chases. The Master Blaster took 232 innings to set the record.
“Other than that in terms of his form I’m not entirely sure there is a weakness there particularly on pitches at home and particularly given that England do not possess high-quality spinners or real pace bowlers,” Butcher further added.
Kohli has been a consistent performer across all three formats while going after the bowlers, particularly in run-chases and he is improving with each game.
“Now that will be one area where I think that England might be looking to have a go at Kohli in these coming matches,” Butcher revealed.
Butcher said bowlers going with a ploy early in the innings could stop Kohli from playing attacking cricket and he is hopeful that visitors would go hard against the newly appointed India captain in the remaining games.
“Liam Plunkett, if available, might be the man to be thrown the ball to come in and rough up the Indian captain,” Butcher concluded.