‘Kohli will be kicking himself. He can’t…’: Virat told to ‘watch Joe Root’ in Pietersen’s rant on dismissal to Rashid

India had one box top tick before they left for Dubai next week for the Champions Trophy and Virat Kohli did it with his a half-century knock in the final game of the three-match ODI series against England at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. But former England batter Kevin Pietersen refused to accept the ‘back to form’ talks as he criticised Kohli’s dismissal to Adil Rashid for the second straight time in the series.

Kohli’s form was a big concern for India heading into the ICC tournament. Having gone through a lean phase in red-ball cricket, which included his poor return to Ranji Trophy last month, Kohli managed just five runs in the second ODI on Sunday against England, where he was dismissed by Rashid. Kohli had missed the series opener owing to swollen knee.

However, on Wednesday, he bounced back to form as he smashed his 73rd ODI fifty, en route to India setting a 357-run target to England.

While the knock came as huge relief to India, Pietersen, speaking to Star Sports during a mid-innings interaction, was not happy with his former RCB teammate falling to Rashid for the 11th time in his career. He reckoned Kohli should have gone for the big score.

“He shouldn’t be getting out to that ball. He’s a much better player than that. And he will be kicking himself. That ball is bowled slowly through the air. So he shouldn’t have been over-committed on the front foot. He should have played back to it. He should have punched it into the offside, and he would still have been batting and he probably would have gone on to get a big score,” he said.

Virat Kohli told to ‘watch Joe Root’

Further assessing the dismissal, Pietersen reckoned Joe Root would never get dismissed to a delivery like that as he told Kohli to watch his contemporary.

“You can see where it hits from side on angle. That hits the top of the bat. That hits the splice of the bat. Which means that he got his lengths wrong. That’s nowhere near the middle of his bat. Have a look at that,” he said.

“That’s where you can see where the ball has made contact with the bat. Look how far forward his bat is in front of his pad. This means he’s got the length wrong and he’s too good a player to get out like that. He shouldn’t be doing it. He shouldn’t be giving Adel Rashid that chance to get his wicket. You watch Joe Root. He will never be over-committed on the front foot like that. No way.”