Gavaskar Explains Virat Kohli Technique Issue: Legendary Indian batter Sunil Gavaskar has pointed to a weakness in Virat Kohli’s game as the reason behind his poor performance in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Today was Day One of the fifth and final Australia vs India Test match, which is being played at the Sydney Cricket Ground. With Rohit Sharma ‘opting out’ of the playing XI, Jasprit Bumrah took over the captaincy and chose to bat first after winning the toss.
Openers KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal were out for cheap. Then, Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli stabilised the inning a little before Gill got out on the final ball before lunch.
Kohli has not had the best of BGT 2024-25, despite hitting a century in the first Test at Perth. In the other five innings he has had in this series apart from the 100 before this match, he has scored 67 runs, with 36 being his personal best.
Check Out: Watch the Jasprit Bumrah vs Sam Konstas fight in 5th test
With the series on the line, it looked like Virat got out on the first ball of his inning today, but it was later judged that the ball had touched the ground before the catch was completed in the slips, and hence, he was safe.
However, the song that has played out countless times in this series then rang out once again. Playing on 17, the 36-year-old edged a ball in the line of the 5th/6th stump and was caught in the slips, just like he has gotten out every time in this series. He was dismissed by Scott Boland and caught by the debutant Beau Webster.
With a legendary player like Virat Kohli getting out again and again in a similar fashion, this has been a major talking point in the ongoing BGT. Now, the series’ namesake Sunil Gavaskar has shared his opinion as to why Kohli is regularly getting out like this.
Gavaskar Explains Virat Kohli Technique Issue
Speaking to Star Sports following the end of the day’s play, Gavaskar reckoned that the ace batter could avoid getting dismissed like this if he uses his back foot, saying,
“He will himself be very disappointed. His weakness is only because of one reason. He wants to play a lot off the front foot. If you use your back foot, you can leave these deliveries because when you go onto the back foot, you get the time of one-and-a-half feet.”
The former Indian cricketer then went on to say that Virat opening his face of the bat slightly also adds to the issue.
“When you play off the front foot, you are unable to control. It’s absolutely right to go close to the ball if it’s swinging, but you get a chance to play bounce if you play back. He is not doing that because he is only playing forward. He was outside the crease. So it will be difficult, and he also opened his bat’s face slightly,” Gavaskar explained.
With Virat Kohli getting out for cheap, the rest of the team followed suit. Rishabh Pant’s 40 was the highest individual score of the inning as the Indian Cricket Team was dismissed for 185. But then, India took the wicket of Usman Khawaja before the day ended.
The series currently stands at 2-1 as the final India vs Australia Test gets underway. As India won the previous edition of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the winner of this match will take home the trophy.
Check Out: Gavaskar Explains Virat Kohli Technique Issue
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