"Trying Too Hard...": India Great Namedrops Rohit Sharma In Big Advice For Virat Kohli

Former India captain and coach Anil Kumble feels Virat Kohli is putting a "lot more pressure on himself" in his effort to get out of the lean patch, and advised the baittng icon to remain mentally relaxed. Since the 2023 ODI World Cup, Kohli has hit just one fifty while scoring 137 runs in six ODI innings. "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," Kumble said on 'ESPNcricinfo'. "Rohit 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," he added.

"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," Kumble added.

Kumble reckoned a relaxed approach would help Kohli in getting out of the rut.

"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."

In India's Champions Trophy opener against Bangladesh, Kohli struggled to score, and was eventually dismissed on 22 by leg-spinner Rishad Hossain, making it the Indian's sixth consecutive dismissal against spin.

"To start off against spin, on surfaces like that, you need a lot of confidence. He's certainly trying too hard to manoeuvre that. He's a good player of spin when he's in form, when he wants to just knock singles off and keep rotating the strike.

"Now he's trying too hard to score runs rather than just manoeuvre, and