New Delhi: Virat Kohli’s suspect technique against the moving ball has been exposed by Australia in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar series and he need a big mental adjustment to tide over this weakness, his one time India team-mate Cheteshwar Pujara has said.
Kohli has been dismissed edging balls outside the off stump in four of his five innings in three Tests of the BGT series. The only time he wasn’t dismissed was an unbeaten 100-run knock in the second innings of the series opener at Perth.
In all the other four innings, he has been dismissed cheaply as he failed to negotiate the moing ball outside the fourth stump, edging it to the slips or the keeper.
Pujara, who was instrumental in India’s two successive Test series wins in Australia in 2018 and 2021, explained why Kohli has been struggling in the current series.
“We were discussing that he has been forced to play the new ball. He has gotten out whenever he has played the new ball. When he played the old ball, he scored a hundred in Perth. So that’s also a very big point,” Pujara told Star Sports.
“His technique is not made for the new ball. His batting should come after 10, 15 or 20 overs. If he plays the new ball, the bowlers are fresh, and their confidence is also high. When they get two wickets, the entire team is charged up. So when you come to bat at that stage, it’s not easy.”
‘Mental adjustment needed’
Kohli scored his 31st Test ton at Perth but apart from that has had a poor run of scores with only 376 runs in his last 17 innings at an average of 25.07. 126 of those runs has come in five innings of the current series.
It has led to many questioning his ability to produce match winning innings as he has failed to get into the double digits in three out of five innings.
“When the bowling is happening in just one area, on the fourth to sixth stump, and he is playing that and getting out, it’s not a good thing. He understands that himself. We saw in the net session as well that he was leaving balls in that area, but that execution is not happening in the match,” Pujara said.
“In the match, for some reason, he wants to leave the ball but is unable to, and the bat is going there. So he will have to stop himself. He will have to change his mindset.
“There is a technical part that you are playing a delivery outside off-stump. However, if you have to leave the same delivery, it’s not a very big technical adjustment but he needs to make a bigger mental adjustment.”
Virat Kohli has been dismissed edging balls outside the off stump in four of his five innings in three Tests of the BGT series. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
