Karsan Ghavri: Virat Is A Great Player But Only His Name Will Not Work

Former India cricketer Karsan Ghavri on Friday shared his thoughts on Virat Kohli's poor form, saying the former skipper is a great player, "but he can't play for long just riding on his name".

"Virat Kohli is such a great player for India but unfortunately for the last two years we have seen him getting caught behind or caught in the slips while chasing the delivery outside the off-stump".

"He has to look at this and improve. He has to restrict those shots because if he keeps going like this and getting out and not getting runs, there comes a question mark -- 'why is he not scoring'?" Ghavri, who was a part of the 1975 and 1979 World Cup teams, told Jagran TV.

"He has to prove his form in the current series. These days you can't play for long riding on your name. Virat is a great player but only his name will not work. He has to perform and score runs. This is how it goes. Everybody understands that he is going through a rough patch and it happens with every player," he said.

Further praising Hardik Pandya, who has been widely compared to former India skipper Kapil Dev, Ghavri said, "there are no doubts in Pandya's cricketing abilities".

However, he feels that the 28-year-old all-rounder has a long way to go before he can be compared to Kapil.

Pandya on Thursday displayed his potential as a match-winner during the first T20I between India and England at the Rose Bowl Cricket Stadium in Southampton where the Men In Blue defeated the English side by 50 runs.

India's victory was backed by the likes of Hardik Pandya who scored a quickfire fifty, propelling the visitors to 198 for eight. The swashbuckling all-rounder then destroyed England's batting and finished with excellent figures of 4/33 in his full quota of four overs.

"There's no doubt about Hardik Pandya being a fine cricketer and after a long time, India has found a good all-rounder in him. He bowls beautifully, bats well and scores runs at the right time. Plus, he is a very safe fielder just like the State Bank of India", Ghavri said, adding, "I feel we definitely need such an all-rounder".

"People do compare him with Kapil Dev but I think he has a long way to go before he can be compared with Kapil Dev", Ghavri said.

"Kapil Dev was a different breed altogether and his records and stats speak volumes for him. So, it is not fair to compare Hardik with Kapil Dev yet", Ghavri further asserted.

On Jadeja being named as vice-captain of India for the upcoming limited-overs tour of West Indies, Ghavri said although Jadeja is a fantastic player, he is not captain material.

"When India's squad for the West Indies tour was announced, I saw that Shikhar Dhawan was named as the captain. I feel this was a good move. But they have named Ravindra Jadeja as the vice-captain. Haven't the selectors seen what happened to Jadeja in the IPL?", he said.

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"He had to leave the CSK captaincy halfway through because he is not captain material. He is a brilliant cricketer but a captain's mind is totally different. Jadeja doesn't have the ability or even Jasprit Bumrah for that matter", Ghavri concluded.