Speaking to former Indian batter Subramaniam Badrinath on his YouTube channel named Cric It with Badri, former South African all-rounder Albie Morkel has supported the idea of former Indian captain Virat Kohli needing to bowl in ICC Cricket World Cup 2023.
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Kohli, who bowled in an ODI after six years and in a World Cup after eight years last month, has since coined a desire among fans in terms of wanting to see him bowl again.
Therefore, it wasn’t surprising at all to hear a chant such as “Kohli ko bowling do [Make Virat Kohli bowl]” during India-Sri Lanka contest in Mumbai on Thursday. In spite of India eventually bowling Sri Lanka out for 55 in 19.4 overs to register one of their biggest wins in the format, captain Rohit Sharma didn’t pay heed to fans’ request with respect to a bowling change.
Morkel, however, believes Kohli should bowl only if he wants to as the same could also prove costly especially in a world event.
“I think it’s unfair to him. Unless he wants to bowl, Badri. I’m sure the captain won’t make a big call like that. If he wants to bowl, give it to him. He should bowl and come and redeem himself,” Morkel said to Badrinath.
Sharma, who deserves appreciation for sticking to his first-choice bowlers at the Wankhede Stadium, might have to introduce Kohli into the bowling attack yet again especially if one of the five Indian bowlers doesn’t bowl good enough to complete a 10-over spell or gets injured midway in the absence of a sixth-bowling option named Hardik Pandya.
Kohli, who had picked a maiden international wicket without bowling a legitimate delivery with his unusual action, has also received head coach Rahul Dravid‘s backing albeit in a sarcastic manner. Addressing how India are bereft of a sixth bowling option now, Dravid informed the reporters of possessing a “wrong-footed in-swinging menace” in Kohli.
“The fact is that we will not be in a position to have a proper sixth option. We do have the option to call upon our wrong-footed, in-swinging menace. And with the crowd behind him, I’d back him for a couple of overs there in a few wickets. The crowd was demanding his bowling in the last game. We came very close to giving him an over,” Dravid told reporters on the eve of India-South Africa match in Kolkata.
Albie Morkel Had Scored 28 Runs Off Virat Kohli In IPL 2012
A chief reason why Badrinath considered Morkel as an apt individual to share an opinion on Kohli’s bowling is the latter hitting as many as 28 runs against him 11 years ago.
For the unversed, former Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Daniel Vettori had handed the ball to Kohli with Chennai Super Kings requiring 43 runs in two overs to seal a 206-run chase in an Indian Premier League 2012 match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.
Having not played a single ball at the time, Morkel hit two fours and three sixes in Kohli’s penultimate over as his impact-generating knock powered CSK to a memorable victory. As mentioned by him in the aforementioned video, Morkel is constantly reminded of his heroics on social media till date.
Kohli, who hasn’t bowled in an ODI against South Africa since 2015, has only picked one wicket against them, i.e., Quinton de Kock (in Johannesburg a decade ago). With the last of his four ODI wickets coming as many as nine years ago, it will be interesting to see if he gets to add to his tally on his 35th birthday today.
