"Go Sit On A Beach": Ex-England Captain Says Virat Kohli "Needs A Sabbatical"

Former England captain Michael Vaughan feels out-of-form India batter Virat Kohli should take "three months break" from cricket, and spend some time with his family. Kohli, who has not scored a century in nearly three years, managed scores of 11 and 20 in the recently-concluded fifth Test against England at Edgbaston in Birmingham. Highlighting Kohli's poor returns with the bat of late, Vaughan said that the 33-year-old batter needs a sabbatical from cricket, which will help him re-invent himself.

"I look at Virat in particular. I knew he had a little bit of a rest at the end of the IPL. But he just looks to me like he needs a sabbatical. He looks like he needs three months away from cricket. Go and sit on a beach. Go and do what you can with your family because a career of 20 years, which he probably will end up getting (runs) because he's such a good player. To have a three months break, is it going to affect him? No. Will it help him? Yes," Vaughan said during a chat with Cricbuzz.

Vaughan hit out at the scheduling of the three-match India-England T20I series that got underway on Thursday, saying it's impossible for the players to play all three formats in a span of few days.

Seen as a build-up to the T20 World Cup later this year, the series gets underway barely two days after the Test match got over.

"I just look at the schedule for India and England. It's ridiculous. We'll see more and more of this over the next few years. It's just impossible that all-format players will be able to play all three formats.

"The management of all these teams are going to have to be very clever in terms of giving them a breather," Vaughan said.

Kohli was not in the squad for the first T20I, which India won comfortably thanks to Hardik Pandya's all-round show.

Topics mentioned in this article

Cricket India Cricket Team Virat Kohli Michael Vaughan England vs India, 2022 England vs India, 5th Test