'Play With His Ego...Tell Him You Guys Are Chokers': Monty Panesar's Advice to England For Upcoming Test Series in India

Virat Kohli’s seemingly never-ending prime continues to torment bowlers all over. Many teams have had to learn this lesson the hard way. So, with the Test series against England right around the corner, former English spinner Monty Panesar believes that one way to bring the talisman batter’s exploits to a temporary standstill would be to risk poking the bear and sledge him to ‘mentally pinch’ Kohli.

Kohli relishes playing against England bowlers, especially in the long format, for he has a lavish track record to speak for the same. The batting phenom has notched 1991 runs in 28 matches at an average of 42.36 against the Englishmen, the second-most he has managed against a single opponent.

Not only that, Kohli is on track to become only the fourth Indian batter to score over 9000 runs in Test cricket, as he remains just 152 runs short of achieving the feat. By doing so, he will write his name into the history books along with the likes of esteemed batters such as Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar and current India head coach Rahul Dravid.

Kohli without doubt will be the one every England bowler will set their target on. In order to throw off the highly-effective Kohli, Monty Panesar had advised the visiting England side to engage in mind games to restrict the former India captain’s run-scoring ability.

“Play with his ego and get psychologically stuck into him. They should also say things to him like, you guys are chokers when it comes to the final. They should sledge him on those lines because Stokes has won the ODI and T20 WC and Kohli has not and that is going to mentally pinch him,” Panesar exclaimed to India.com.

Panesar also believes that it will be veteran fast bowler James Anderson who shall dismiss Virat Kohli during the series because of his ability to produce the menacing reverse-swing.

“I think it will be James Anderson and I think it will be the reverse-swing that would get Kohli,” Panesar added.

Anderson had Kohli’s number back in 2014, when he dismissed the talisman batter four times across their series. But, since then, the pacer has only been able to scalp Kohli’s wicket twice over four series. So, this was make for an interesting challenge to witness.

The five-match Test series between India and England will kick off with the first match being played on January 25.