'Name me a player that hasn’t gone through a rough patch': Kevin Pietersen backs Virat Kohli despite poor form

Virat Kohli's search for that elusive 71st Test century continues. In the ongoing one-off Test Match against England the former Indian skipper continued his disappointing run of form as he got out after scoring just 11 runs off 19 balls. Kohli leaned forward to defend a ball outside the off stump and decided to leave it at the last moment. This indecision cost Kohli his wicket as he played the ball on to his stumps.

Despite, Kohli's poor string of form, former England captain Kevin Pietersen backed the former Indian skipper, saying that all great players go through rough patches. "The guy is a great player, the guy is a genius. Name me a player that hasn’t gone through a rough patch in his career. Some of the greatest players have been dropped, they’ve actually just been parked", Pietersen said in an interaction with Sky Sports. "He’s obviously going to get the pressure, but we’ve all been there, it’s the circle of life, you are never good all the way around that circle," added the former batsman.

Pietersen was also full of praise for his old teammate James Anderson. The veteran fast bowler has taken three of the five wickets so far in the match, and also became the first bowler to take 100 wickets against a single opposition at home.

"There’s nothing you can do. Sometimes you’ve just got to say, ‘it’s the great Jimmy Anderson,’” the former England skipper stated. Jimmy Anderson, on occasions, is just too good. What do you do? You watch (Glenn) McGrath, (Wasim) Akram, (Shaun) Pollock, he’s as good as, if not better, than a lot of those guys, in these conditions in particular," said Pietersen.

At the end of the second session of play, India were batting at 174-5 with Rishabh Pant scoring a quickfire half-century and stitching a crucial partnership with Ravindra Jadeja to steady the innings after the initial fall of wickets.