'Kohli must play more responsibly'

Virat Kohli is expected to captain India in all formats at some point but before that happens the star batsmen must start taking more responsibility towards his team, says spin great Erapalli Prasanna.

"In all probability, Kohli will captain the Indian team in the next World Cup. For that, he needs to start taking more responsibility towards his team and ensure he holds the unit together," Prasanna said.

Prasanna's comments come in the wake of Kohli's performance in a big-ticket tournament like the World Cup. "It is okay to play with an aggressive approach but you always can't fight fire with fire. Kohli is a good player but at times he needs to respect the opposition. You can't always take on the bowlers," said the former off-spinner, referring to his mistimed pull shot off Mitchell Johnson in the World Cup semifinal.

Kohli had a quiet World Cup by his high standards though he ended up scoring 305 runs from eight games at an average of 50.83. What disappointed many of his fans was that he could not fire in big games after hitting a hundred against Pakistan in the tournament opener. "It is good to play with confidence but the fact of the matter is you have to respect other players. He needed to play the sheet anchor role in the tournament and especially in the semifinal, he should have taken more time before attempting a pull shot against high quality pace," said Prasanna, talking about the stroke that led to Kohli's downfall in the semifinal that India lost by 95 runs. "He did so well in Test matches in Australia and should have shown similar temperament in World Cup," he added.

Kohli smashed four hundreds in the four-match Test series that preceded the tri-series and World Cup.

‘He’s been sensational in Oz’

Dismissing criticism against Kohli for his early dismissal in the World Cup semi-final against Australia, former Indian cricket captain Rahul Dravid said barring the one blip, the star batsman has been sensational Down Under. "We have short memory. He did play his absolute best in the Test matches. In fact, he was sensational," Dravid said on the sidelines of an event here.

"I cannot think of an Indian batsman who had come to Australia and played as well as Virat Kohli in the Test matches. We did see his absolute best. Unfortunately we didn't see it the other night (semi final match). But thats part and parcel of the sports," he added.

On India's losing the semifinals against Australia in Sydney, Dravid said he was not very disappointed by the defeat. "Realistically, India didn't beat Australia at all during these four months at any Test matches and tri-series and New Zealand did play some fantastic cricket at home," he said. "I think the two best teams made to finals," he said adding, "India did as well as they could and it was quite difficult to get to the semifinals."