Go and sit on a beach, take three-month sabbatical: Michael Vaughan tells Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli could be better off taking a three-month sabbatical and "go and sit on a beach", suggested former England captain Michael Vaughan. Two low scores in the recently-held Covid-delayed fifth Test against England have extended Kohli's lean run with the bat. Kohli looked in fine touch during his stay in the middle, but failed to convert his starts into substantial scores, as England rallied to win the match and level the series 2-2.

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Virat Kohli's ploy of trying to negate swing by meeting the ball early has backfired, feels the legendary Sunil Gavaskar, whose advice in English conditions has always been about playing as late as possible.

"I look at Virat in particular. I knew he had a little bit of a rest at the end of the IPL. But he just looks to me like he needs a sabbatical. He looks like he needs three months away from cricket. Go and sit on a beach," Vaughan said during a chat with Cricbuzz. "Go and do what you can with your family because a career of 20 years, which he probably will end up getting because he's such a good player. To have a three months break, is it going to affect him? No. Will it help him? Yes," he added. Vaughan hit out at the scheduling of the three-match India-England T20I series that gets underway later on Thursday, saying it's impossible for the players to play all three formats in a span of few days.

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Regular skipper Rohit Sharma, pacer Jasprit Bumrah, wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant and all-rounder Hardik Pandya are likely to return to India's near full-strength T20I