'Sitting in the change room won't get your form back': Gavaskar's stern warning for Virat Kohli amid calls for break

Calls for Virat Kohli to take a break from cricket has been growing by the day amid his concerning form in the ongoing 2022 Indian Premier League (IPL). On Sunday, the former Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper suffered his third golden duck dismissal in the season after being dismissed by J Suchith of Sunrisers Hyderabad in the very first ball of the match after RCB had opted to bat first at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. However, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has issued a stern warning for Kohli amid these calls and his forgettable IPL season. (Follow IPL 2022 full coverage)

In 12 innings in 2022 IPL, Kohli has managed just 216 runs at a strike rate of only 111.3 with one half-century knock and six single-digit scores. This numbers are his worst every for an IPL season which has hence given rise of the calls for a break for the 33-year-old, the first of which came last month after SRH pacer Marco Jansen had inflicted the same.

Former India head coach Ravi Shastri had opined that Kohli has been "overcooked" and hence requires a rest period from the game. And following the comment, many veteran cricketers reiterated the same with ex-England captain Michael Vaughan tweeting along the same lines after Kohl's dismissal on Sunday.

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However, in conversation with Star Sports, Gavaskar opined that break doesn't mean he will miss matches for his country as India games should be his top priority. He further revealed that he wasn't in favour of the calls and rather feels that Kohli should continue playing a bid to get back his form.

“As long as the break doesn’t mean he is missing India matches. India matches should be No. 1 priority. It’s as simple as that. I think the thing is that if you don’t play, how do you get your form back? Sitting in the change room, it’s not going to get your form back. The more you play, the more chances you have getting your form back,” Gavaskar said.

“You ask all over India, you want everybody in India who follows the game will say ‘we want the form for India’. Right? So you can’t take a break for an India game. You want Kohli to start scoring runs for India. All of us want that. All of us want to see him get back to scoring big runs again."