Irfan Pathan questioned Virat Kohli’s performance in the five-Test series against Australia. The former all-rounder mentioned that India can prepare a young player and even he can match Kohli’s numbers at the moment. Virat was dismissed outside the off stump throughout the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25, with Australian pacers adopting a simple approach against him.

When he scored a century in the second innings of the first Test, some of the Australia and India players predicted a bumper series for him but he left behind his form in Perth, gifting his wicket to the rivals.

In his last Test innings on Australian soil, he hit himself in anger after Scott Boland took his wicket for the second time in the game. The mode of dismissal was similar and Kohli was furious with himself. Irfan showed a mirror to one of the greatest batters.

“India doesn’t need a superstar culture, India need a team culture. Tell me about the last instance when Virat Kohli competed in domestic cricket. You are taking about a decade. Even great Sachin Tendulkar played domestic cricket after that.

“There was no need for Sachin to play domestic matches but he still gave time to it. He knew what was needed in red-ball cricket. You don’t want to teach Virat about scoring runs as he has been one of the most consistent run-getters. Virat is averaging 15 in the first innings in the last few innings and his average is less than 30 in the last five years. If you prepare a young cricketer, he can also score runs at an average of around 25-30. We are not degrading Virat Kohli as he has scored a lot of runs but you can’t get dismissed in a similar way everytime. You can’t make a similar mistake,” he said.

“You don’t want to correct your mistakes. Sunny sir (Sunil Gavaskar) is always present. Virat can speak to him or some other legendary cricketers. He is not working hard to solve his issues,” Irfan Pathan added.