It seems that Virat Kohli is being haunted by the ghost of his 2014 England tour where he had a horrible performance with the bat. His tendency to chase deliveries outside off was exploited to the hilt by the English bowlers back then keeping him quiet during the entire tour.
However, during the tour of 2018, Kohli was well-prepared and hence, scored plenty of runs, On the ongoing tour though he’s back to square one as he’s been dismissed in the same fashion repeatedly - chasing deliveries that are way outside off.
Batting legend Sunil Gavaskar though defended Kohli’s approach arguing it has gotten him thousands of runs but he did point fingers over the India captain’s intent.
“That method has been successful for him. He has got 8000 Test runs with that back and across movement," Gavaskar said on Sony Sports Network. “But he is playing at deliveries way outside off stump and a little too early in the innings. This time around, the foot is somewhere else, the bat is somewhere else, which means that he hasn’t really played well. It could be about this much-talked-about word intent but in a five-day game, every batsman goes in to score runs. It’s the method that differs."
Kohli was out for a golden duck in the drawn first Test at Trent Bridge. However, in the ongoing Test at Lord’s, he got the starts in both the innings, although they were a study in contrast.
While in the first innings he scored 42 off 103, in the next, he was relatively aggressive while hitting 20 off 31 deliveries. Gavaskar hinted that the approach from the 32-year-old could have been a little different.
“When you talk about this ‘trying to take this attack to the opposition’ approach, and if that is what intent is, it can get you into trouble like we saw. I think every batsman should be left alone to find his own method. This is a Test match. In ODI and T20I, it’s a completely different situation, but over here, what they need to look into is get themselves in and try to play in the old-fashioned ‘V’. Play only when you have fought through," Gavaskar said.
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