Kohli putting too much pressure on himself, says former India head coach Anil Kumble

His lack of form includes a terrible record against leg spinners, such as Adil Rashid and Rishad Hossain. Five of his last six dismissals have been to legspinners. Kohli was dismissed for 22 off 38 balls against Bangladesh in India’s opener in the Champions Trophy.

"To start off against spin, on surfaces like that, you need a lot of confidence. He's certainly trying too hard to manoeuvre that," Kumble said on ESPNcricinfo. "He's a good player of spin when he's in form, when he's wanting to just knock singles off and keep rotating the strike. Now he's trying too hard to score runs rather than just manoeuvre, and that's been his game plan.

"All players go through tough moments in their career, but I get a feeling watching him bat, I think he is putting a lot more pressure on himself. he just needs to relax a little bit and not worry too much about the outcome of what happens on the field rather than just go out there and have the freedom to just go and play naturally what he does really well."

Pressure On Kohli, Rohit

India began their Champions Trophy with a comfortable win against Bangladesh, led by Mohammad Shami’s five-for and Shubman Gill’s century on a tricky surface. However, there are several concerns around the batting form of Rohit Sharma and Kohli, who have been in poor form since the home series against New Zealand.

"You have that in players who have been there and done that before and everyone sort of looks up to you saying he's the guy who's going to take the game away and he's the one guy who is the important man in the team," Kumble said.

"When you have that kind of pressure and you have that kind of expectation, you suddenly start putting undue importance to all of that and then try hard to do well. When you do that, you're not really relaxed. Rohit comes in there, has the freedom because there is plenty of batting and all of them are in great form. Similarly for Virat, he just needs to come in and not worry about anything else."

Betting On Kohli On Stake

India’s next game is against Pakistan in Dubai on Sunday. On Stake, you can bet on whether Kohli will score more or less than 36.5 runs. The odds for Kohli to finish as India’s top batter is 3.70, behind Shubman Gill (odds of 3.50).