Kohli did start his campaign in Australia on a brilliant note, scoring a century in the second innings in Perth. However, he returned with scores of just 7, 11 and 3 in the next three innings. But what left experts concerned was that four of his five dismissals in the series were against the deliveries outside the off-stump.

Ahead of the fourth Test match in Melbourne, Rohit was asked if he had a word with Kohli on such dismissals or if he left the modern-day great alone.” He replied: “You only said he is a modern-day great. Modern-day greats figure out their own path.”

‘That’s a flawed statement’

Speaking to ESPNCricinfo on the eve of the MCG Test, Manjrekar exposed Rohit’s statement, calling it “flawed.” However, having been “part of the system” in his international career, he understood that Rohit only made the statement not to put any external pressure on the former India captain.

“That is actually a flawed statement. But let’s understand, he has to say that because he cannot go out there and put further pressure on the batter. However, from deep within, cricketers think differently. I was part of that statement. We couldn’t actually speak our minds,” he said.

Manjrekar disagreed that Kohli could solve the problem on his own and rather blamed batting coach Abhishek Nayar, who is also one of India’s assistant coaches, for not “addressing the chronic problem.”

He said: “But that is not true where a modern-day great will find his own way out. If that was the case, then he would have. That is why I’m no longer focussing on Kohli’s problem, but on the guy who was supposed to solve the problem, that is the batting coach. And if he can’t address these chronic problems that some of our batters have had, and these are mostly technical battles. So it is pretty obvious to everyone that Kohli needs outside help because he, on his own, hasn’t been able to solve it.”