'He is not out of form, the issue is...' - Rashid Khan shares his take on Virat Kohli's form ahead of Asia Cup

Virat Kohli is gearing up for his international return as India prepare for their 2022 Asia Cup opener, where they face arch-rivals Pakistan in Dubai on Sunday (August 28). The 33-year-old was out of action after India's tour of England and will be back in the forthcoming Asia Cup.

A lot is being said and written about Kohli's form. The right-hander hasn't had the best of run of late, with his international century-drought continuing since late 2019. Moreover, he returned from the England tour without a single half-century and had an ordinary run in IPL 2022. Rashid Khan, Afghanistan's vital cog, has now opened up on Kohli's form ahead of the Asia Cup opener, where the Afghan team will face Sri Lanka on August 27.

"The kind of shots that he plays, you don't think he's out of form at all. As per me, he is not out of form. The issue is that there are a lot of expectations from him as people expect him to score a century in every alternate match."

"Even when we look at his Test knocks, he did all the hard work and survived during tough periods and has then gotten out in 50s or 60s. If it was any other batter, everyone would have said that he was in good form. Kohli has set the bar so high that people now want him to just score hundreds," Rashid opined in an interview with Sawera Pasha on YouTube.

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Rashid further asserted, "I spoke to him during the IPL and I don't think he wasn't too bothered by what people were saying. He works very hard, and we are motivated to do the same by looking at him."

"I saw him bat in the nets the night before our match against RCB, and I kept track of the time he spent in the nets. To be honest, he batted for around two and a half hours. I was astonished to see that, as we had winded up our whole practice session and he was still there," he concluded.

Rashid and Virat can face each other if India and Afghanistan clash in the Asia Cup. India, Hong Kong and Pakistan are in Pool A whereas Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are placed in Pool B. The group stage will be followed by the Super 4 round before the summit clash, on September 11.