Virat Kohli, who is considered the morale booster in any squad, is under pressure owing to his poor outing against New Zealand, and is not expected to perform any further in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. India suffered a home series loss to the Kiwis, incurring an unprecedented whitewash of 0-3 in an assigned three-match series. All the top players including Kohli and captain Rohit Sharma batted poorly throughout the series, and one of the reasons why India played poorly in this series was because of these batters. Even as India looks forward to the first Test against Australia in Perth, the focus has shifted to Kohli’s weakness against the short balls.
In the 3-day simulation game against India A, Kohli went into bat and made an early exit scoring only 15 runs. Most of the Indian batters batted poorly against the India A pace attack, especially Mukesh Kumar who was extraordinary.
The second day greeted Kohli again, and this time he batted without any loss of wicket after scoring 30 runs and later he went to the nets where he did some personalized training. Although his form in the middle did not inspire much confidence, it has emerged that the 36-year-old batter had major issues with short-pitched bowling according to reports by ESPNCricinfo.
The surface at Perth is not expected to give excessive bounce which is something the Indian batters are not accustomed to playing on the subcontinent wickets. Moreover, since Rohit the best player against short-pitched in the Indian squad is not available for this match, the Australians will be looking to exploit this aptly.
As a matter of fact, Australia’s great fast bowler Glenn McGrath has called upon his team to put the Indian side under pressure from the very beginning, more targeted on the batsman Kohli and to restrict the touring side in their playing area. Although in the past Kohli has come out well in pressure encounters, the present circumstance is not favorable for him as far as his confidence is concerned.
McGrath feels that if he manages to score low in the first 2 innings, Kohli might easily hit a psychological low again.
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