India’s star batter Virat Kohli equaled an embarrassing record after getting dismissed for a duck against New Zealand in the first Test in Bengaluru on Thursday.
Kohli’s poor form in red-ball cricket continued after he was dismissed by Kiwi pace sensation Will O’Rourke who recently came into the spotlight after his brilliant performances in New Zealand’s recently-concluded tour of Sri Lanka.
It was a short of length delivery from the fast bowler that flew off Kohli’s gloves and Glenn Phillips was able to complete a good catch at leg gully. This was Kohli’s 38th international duck, the most for any active cricketer along with New Zealand’s Tim Southee. Indian skipper Rohit Sharma follows him in the list with 33 ducks.
After the first day was abandoned due to rain, the second day saw the play finally commence due to the weather conditions getting a little better. India won the toss and Rohit made an unlikely call of batting first in the overcast conditions.
This decision would come to hurt the hosts as the Kiwi pacers bowled some fine deliveries which saw 3 Indian batters lose their wickets within the first hour of play itself. Rohit, Kohli and Sarfaraz Khan who came in as the replacement for Shubman Gill went back to the dugout for the scores of 2, 0 and 0 respectively.
Jaiswal and Pant were also finding it hard to bat on the bowler-friendly pitch before rain halted the play. Indian batters could only manage to score 13 runs in 12.4 overs on the loss of 3 wickets. It will be interesting to see how Jaiswal and Pant will cope the ferocious Kiwi bowling attack once the play resumes.
