Kohli has often poked on the deliveries outside the off-stump line.
Sanjay Manjrekar has criticised Virat Kohli for not finding a way to tackle his weakness in the deliveries outside the off-stump line. For the unversed, Kohli suffered another similar dismissal against Australia in the second Test in Adelaide, where Mitchell Starc dismissed him, and it was Kohli’s seventh dismissal outside the off-stump line vs pace in Test cricket since June 2023.
Manjrekar pointed out how Kohli’s average, which was over 50 at one stage, has dipped to 48 now in Test cricket, noticing a pattern in his dismissals. He also feels Kohli is adamant and doesn’t change his methods to find success against deliveries outside the off-stump line.
“One important reason why Virat’s average has slipped to 48 now, is the unfortunate weakness outside off. But more crucially his adamance to not try another way to tackle it.”
Starc bowled a short-of-a-length delivery outside the off-stump line, to which Kohli couldn’t understand whether to play or leave and ended up nicking it straight to the second slip, patrolled by Steve Smith. Kohli could have avoided playing that shot, but he was adamant to poke on it and ended up losing his wicket to put India further in troubled waters in the second Test.
India in deep trouble after losing eight wickets in 39 overs
After winning the toss, India opted to field first and were off to the worst possible start, for they lost Yashasvi Jaiswal on the first delivery of the game. Later, KL Rahul and Shubman Gill tried weaving a partnership and added 69 for the second wicket before a collapse derailed India’s innings.
Even after the break, the proceedings of the wickets kept going as India lost too many wickets in the second session. Mitchell Starc wreaked havoc with the ball and was unplayable with the pink ball.
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He got his yorkers well, and Indian batters could hardly do anything to counter it. He kept coming hard at them and took a magnificent five-wicket haul to bolster his pink-ball record.
Indian tailenders will look to score as many as they can before coming to bowl. A lot will depend on how Nitish Kumar Reddy bats from here on.
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