Kohli, Jadeja under pressure to perform: Wasim Akram

Apr 04, 2012 |

IANS

Kolkata

Tags:

Former Pakistani captain Wasim Akram, the bowling coach of the Kolkata Knight Riders, feels that Ravindra Jadeja and Virat Kohli would be under tremendous pressure to perform in the fifth season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

The legendary fast bowler said that Jadeja would have to justify the enormous amount of money spent by Chennai Super Kings for acquiring his services while Kohli would feel the heat to continue his rich vein of form.

Jadeja was bought by the Chennai outfit for a whopping $2 million (Rs 9.8 crore). The Saurashtra all-rounder previously represented the Rajasthan Royals.

"IPL-5 will tell us how much Ravindra Jadeja has evolved as a cricketer. He started promisingly on the Australian tour but faded out. He may have talent but he now has to justify the price that Chennai paid to acquire him. Jadeja really has to get his act together and the pressure will be enormous," Akram was quoted as saying by ESPN Cricinfo.

"At the same time, Virat Kohli will be under pressure to continue his good form. He has been a revelation so far for Indian cricket and deserves all the adulation he is getting on and off the field. Kohli now needs to keep his feet firmly grounded and enforce the belief that he is India captaincy material," he added.

Akram backed the teams that were in the last four last year to be the top teams once again.

"It is difficult to predict which teams will end up as top four. The IPL has always thrown surprises and it has made or marred reputations. But looking at team combinations and back-up staff strength, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Mumbai should go all the way till the qualifiers and eliminators."

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/140167" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-27b988b6ae0427606904586b4c815e3d" value="form-27b988b6ae0427606904586b4c815e3d" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="80965974" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>