Looking at Virat Kohli's IPL 2022 Dry Spell Through a Mental Health Lens

[00:00:00] You're listening to The Quint's podcast. Things are going from bad to worse for Virat Kohlis as his poor performance continues to haunt him in the ongoing IPL 2022, as he got out on the first ball for the second straight

[00:00:24] match and scored less than 10 runs in the match subsequent to it. The former Indian captain who has scored over 23,500 international runs for India was out on the first ball against Lucknow Super Giants and on 23 April, when he etched out

[00:00:38] the outgoing delivery he faced from South Africa past polo Marco Jensen, it has now also been 100 games across all Parma's cricket that Virat Kohlis has not scored a century. And this dry spell of course has also prompted pundits like Parma in their coach Ravi Shastri

[00:00:52] and Virat Kohlis is well-wishers to suggest that Kohlis is quote unquote over-court and needs a break away from the game and the spotlight. So in today's episode we analyse the possible reasons for this kind of a lane patch

[00:01:03] for Kohlis and also the possible solution for a player of his level to come back from it. For this we spoke to cricket commentators and analysts transition Arayana and Amit Mathur who was also the former CEO of the Delhi Daredevil's.

[00:01:14] We also spoke to Dr Divya Jain, a sports psychologist at Fortress Hospital in New Delhi. You're tuned in to The Big Story, the podcast where we dissect the headline making news for you and I'm your host Imat.

[00:01:37] Kohlis as many of us are aware is one of the world's finest multi-format cricketers and when he steps on the field expectations are high and since stepping down from captaincy for both India and RCB earlier last year there was an expectation from both the fans and

[00:01:51] experts for him to dominate the charts without the burden of leadership on his shoulders. But just by taking a look at his recent games one can point out that he is going through a lane patch.

[00:02:01] Take a look at the current IPL season where he has not managed to score a half century so far aggregating 119 runs after 8 games and the two golden ducks also do not help escape. According to Amrit Mathur, Virat Kohlis' dry spell is a matter of concern given his aptitude

[00:02:15] and the fact that we have never seen Virat Kohlis really struggling at the pitch. Listen you can all speculate about what is needed to get him back into form but I guess the only person who can give an answer is Virat Kohlis himself because there are various

[00:02:29] theories being put out to explain his lean trot recently. Sometimes technical, sometimes he's trying too hard, he needs a break, he's tired, maybe the recent controversy is about captaincy etc. We really don't know.

[00:02:45] But the core issue is that you have perhaps arguably one of the best players in the world over the last six, seven years suddenly struggling and this is perhaps his first spell of low scores in a continuous period.

[00:03:02] So that's a matter of concern and there are logical questions about why is this happening. But as I said nobody really has an answer because some of the dismissals have been maybe technical, some have been because of lack of judgment or as they say wrong shot selection.

[00:03:22] Some have been good balls and some have been very poor shots so we really don't know. But yes it is a matter of concern that suddenly he is absolutely short of runs and at the moment doesn't look as if he's coming out of it.

[00:03:39] His dismissal sort of becomes adds to the pressure, adds to his problems. Various things have been tried. He's changed his batting order, he was lower down when he came up and he opened. He started to be aggressive from the beginning.

[00:03:55] So yes it is different Virat Koli we are seeing. One is Virat Koli who's struggling. We've never seen him struggle except for that one big tour to England when Anderson got him repeatedly and he made practically no runs in the test series.

[00:04:12] But apart from that Virat Koli is now in out of form, now in short of runs. So that's the concern. Now what could be the possible reason for this slump? The number one reason that analysts in Koli's fans point out is that he's quote unquote overcooked.

[00:04:26] According to Ravi Shastri a long time mentor to Koli in the former team in Dekoch, Koli needs to take a break to freshen up his mind. Shastri went to the extent of recommending that if push comes to shove, Koli should pull out of the IPL altogether.

[00:04:38] And another possible reason could be the lack of downtime cricketers have had since the pandemic started. They have been moving from one bio bubble to another and players like Koli and Jadija have voiced out concerns regarding bio bubble fatigue.

[00:04:49] According to Dr. Divya Jain a sports psychologist at Fortis Hospital, the lack of downtime can take a toll on any professional player. She weighs in on the personal and psychological factors that may impact a player like Virat Koli to constantly perform at their best.

[00:05:03] You know I think when we talk about sports and athletes, we tend to think of them as these super humans. We think of run rates, strike rates, we count the centuries. But what we don't often look at is the person behind the player, the kind of

[00:05:18] how experiences shape them, their personal circumstances, changes in environment and how all of those can have an impact. So when we talk about this bio bubble, one of course, it brings with it a certain

[00:05:31] sense of social isolation where yes you are with your team or you are with a particular league but at the same time you are cut off from family members from your other social support networks. You also don't get the kind of downtime that you otherwise would you're constantly

[00:05:47] in that same environment at all times and it can take a toll. And I think at the same time, you know it's the tournament schedules I think also have undergone a significant change in the last two years right.

[00:05:58] Players are used to having a very structured periodized kind of a schedule where recoveries look bad, taking regular breaks is looked at but those schedules have also not been the same and lots of tournaments been going on to be able to incorporate that.

[00:06:13] So I think we have to understand that there are a lot of personal psychological factors that also go into making a player perform the way that they do. At the same time, of course, you're playing at the stage where there is a pressure to perform,

[00:06:26] millions of people are watching you and you know there is that public scrutiny if you make a mistake it's not just a one-time mistake it's something that gets played over and over again and so a lot of these pressures come together with athletes.

[00:06:40] Dr. Jain adds that when any player is experiencing a slump or a low in their career, a sense of self-belief is important for them to bounce back since the player may become more self-conscious if the dry spell continues.

[00:06:52] To understand what a player goes through when they are under pressure, this kind of psychological stress impacts you know it impacts the performance in the game as well as well being at times as well so a sense of self-belief is probably the most

[00:07:05] important aspect of success and when you are experiencing a slump or a low for any player can take a toll on their confidence. At the same time, while playing the game there's a shift in your attention so you tend to be more

[00:07:18] self-conscious decision making gets impacted. There are also you know psychological changes that take place in your body in terms of your rhythm of how you play at the same time your own mental well-being, the emotional aspects, the kind of thought processes we have

[00:07:35] can also get impacted. So when we're looking at recovery it could look a couple of different ways yes in a lot of cases when you know when your back is pushed against the wall

[00:07:44] you need to back yourself as a player, you need to remind yourself of your previous highs and lows and what you've done to be able to back get those comebacks what it is that has made

[00:07:54] you resilient in the past. You stick to the basics and you make sure that you just keep working at it and power through. At the same time though I think we also need to recognize that athlete burnout, player burnout is also something that can take place for a

[00:08:09] few players and sometimes taking a break actually for a little while maybe from a couple of months is not a bad idea. And here we're not just talking about a break from playing but a break

[00:08:20] from all aspects of the sport, we're talking about it, following it, watching it, the social media and to really focus on other aspects of life to be able to recover, rejuvenate and then make a comeback. However sports commentator and analyst Chandrish Narayanan refused to

[00:08:34] lack of downtime as one of the reasons for Koli's poor performance in the recent matches. According to him Koli has taken several breaks both forced and unforced since the pandemic can. He adds that what Koli needs is time away from the spotlight to work on his game

[00:08:48] and get back in the groove. I think that all this talk about him taking a break is all all grand thinking if I were to put it that way but the fact is if you closely analyze the

[00:09:03] data in the last two years say if you take March 2020 as the cutoff point, he's had a lot of break one forced because of the COVID pandemic ravaging the entire world then because of paternity break

[00:09:21] then he had a break early last year during the IPL because the IPL ended early because of the pandemic again after the World Test Championship finally had a three-week break

[00:09:31] after the T20 World Cup he had a 15-20 day break because he didn't play the T20 series in the first test against New Zealand then again in South Africa he missed a test match open to an injury

[00:09:44] against West Indies. He didn't play the last T20 and he missed the entire T20 series against Sri Lanka. I think that works out to at least about 10 months of cricket not being played

[00:09:54] by him and I think that what he actually needs and this is something that everybody's missing in their point is that he needs game time. By game time I mean that he needs time to go out

[00:10:08] and play in the middle where he can make mistakes, learn from it and have an opportunity to play deliveries. You can only do that much in a next session or with throw downs being offered to you by the support staff. What you actually need is a competitive match

[00:10:27] but you need it to help you get some game time and get back your confidence. Unfortunately, India is playing so much international cricket and Virat being an all-format player it becomes

[00:10:42] very difficult for him at times to go back to the basics and get some game time. In the past when people have had problems they've gone to domestic cricket or in India they've

[00:10:55] gone and played Rajik Raufi, got some game time. It's not about the kind of bowling you're playing it's about the feel you get of playing matches, red ball matches where you're being tested yet you're feeling refreshed because of the fact that you are in the middle in a

[00:11:14] competitive scenario and you're also gaining something very valuable while you're being in the middle. Now that is something that is missing from Virat's repertoire over the last two years because India has been playing so the only thing that India played a lot last year

[00:11:32] was a lot of test cricket but apart from that India has played a lot of white ball cricket and he's had to suffer because of that especially the T20 format which to tell you frankly is

[00:11:44] not his natural format unlike say Nishaan Kishan or Surya Kumari Adav for him it does not come naturally because he started off as being someone who learned his basics in red ball cricket

[00:11:57] so he needs time to just get back into that groove and that will only come from playing red ball cricket and at this moment currently there's only one country where there's red ball cricket happening and that's England unfortunately right now Virat can't break his

[00:12:14] contract with RCB and go and play county cricket it can only happen in June when India is playing against some like I put it Mickey Mouse white ball cricket against South Africa and against Ireland

[00:12:26] and maybe even against England he should probably give the one day in T20s a miss but he should not miss the one-off test match because he started off the run last year

[00:12:36] in England when India led the two other the five match test series 2-1 it's going to be a completion of that series this time in England I just wanted to play that test match and then

[00:12:47] take a break and play as much red ball cricket as possible anywhere in the world especially England and if India is touring he should probably just go off with the India team away from the spotlight gain some game time. Mission Narayanan adds that one of the

[00:13:02] possible reasons for the slum may be the way IP has evolved over the years and that Virat Kohli may need to change his short repertoire. What happened was in the initial years Virat was not

[00:13:12] an automatic fit in India's T20 11 not many realized that he made his one day debut in 2008 T20 debut was delayed by about two years this despite the fact that a lot of seniors

[00:13:23] were not playing the T20 format so they still didn't pick him in that format that tells you a lot about what they thought in the initial years about him and some of it might still hold true

[00:13:34] because while he scores a lot of runs in the T20 format there has always been a thing that you know maybe the strike rate could be an issue he's a great test batter he's a fantastic ODI

[00:13:51] batter and he's a chase master in the ODI format but sometimes you've got to admit that you know this format may be a bridge too far for me and this is not a critique or anyone in

[00:14:02] particular it's just the fact that you know the game has changed so much you see batters like you know Surya Kumar Yadav coming in and playing all around the dial. Dinesh Karthik look at the

[00:14:12] way he has adapted himself to the format and he's realized that he needs to do something different in the format so he's playing all around the dial and that's a big quality and

[00:14:23] you know some players have to kind of redraw their strategy when it comes to the T20 format. I think for Virat this format though it grew with him I think at some level he's grounding as a solid

[00:14:39] test match batter he's grounding as a red ball batter stayed with him forever and I think what has happened is that over the years India has not utilized him properly and again this is

[00:14:50] a mistake that India and maybe most in the subcontinent make where we confuse formats he's a fantastic one-day batter at number three but that does not make him a fantastic batter at number three in T20

[00:15:04] Virat if he has to play a T20 cricket for any team has to be as an opener he wanted to open at last year's T20 World Cup but again this public outrage about how can a great number three

[00:15:16] batter batter number one or number two like sort of consumed everybody inside the system and outside the system and everybody started saying no no this can't be how can he batter number three a different technique is required a different thought process is required this is T20 cricket

[00:15:34] you don't need to leave the balls like you are in one-day cricket or even in test cricket you don't need to you don't need to see off the new ball there is no time to see off the

[00:15:42] new ball if you see off the new ball you might as well see yourself off from a contest in a T20 tournament so it is very important that India should have opened with Virat Kohli in the T20 World Cup

[00:15:53] and T20 cricket consistently because imagine this your two best batters Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are batting together and you just have 120 deliveries it is not one-day cricket where you have 300 deliveries there's a lot of time one-day cricket as we have realized over the

[00:16:09] years 300 deliveries is a lot of time in 120 deliveries you have only limited time and it becomes difficult so a batter like Virat goes in and you're in a desperate situation you're

[00:16:20] trying to get yourself out and then you get out and you get out for when you see the scorecard he's only scored 8, 9, 1 or he's added golden duck so that dents the confidence more than anything else if England can drop Joe Root despite him being their test captain despite

[00:16:37] him being in red hot form in test cricket imagine that happening in India if somebody who's in red hot form in test cricket and is considered to be an all format player and

[00:16:46] is not picked for the T20 format there would be an outrage complete outrage about that decision but they realize the need and necessities of the format unfortunately in India or the subcontinent we confuse formats and we sort of get ourselves mixed up with the different

[00:17:04] formats Virat is a terrific number four in test cricket he's a fantastic number three in one day cricket but in T20 cricket he has to has to open if he has to play the format for India or

[00:17:17] for any other team that he features in the format we will see Virat Kohli play again against the Gujarat Titans on 30 April and I as a big Kohli fan can only hope that he gets his mojo back soon

[00:17:28] for more updates and analysis on the ongoing IPL series head over to the Quinn's website if you like listening to this episode please subscribe to the big story for episodic updates we're available on Apple, Google Podcasts, Spotify, GeoSavin and most of the other popular

[00:17:44] podcast streaming platforms for other podcasts please log on to the Quinn website and for any feedback please shoot an email to podcastatthekwinn.com thanks for listening log on to the Quinn's website and check out our other podcast