Former Indian great, VVS Laxman, went into the details of Indian skipper Virat Kohli’s batting technique and revealed what’s going wrong with the stalwart.
King Kohli, who is used to flaunt his perennial purple-patch off-late, has struggled to put on a decent score in recent outings.
His record during the ongoing New Zealand tour forced statisticians to draw parallel with his horrendous tour of England back in 2014.
During his trip to Britain a few years back, Kohli fell victim to James Anderson on numerous occasions, poking at balls outside the off-stump and giving simple catches to the slip cordon.
“The problem for Virat Kohli is not the LBW dismissal, but the way the bat is coming down. This was the way he was getting out in England against the moving ball, especially against James Anderson,” recalled Laxman, while analyzing the dismissal during a show for the official broadcasters of New Zealand vs India series.
Kohli, after his failure in the second innings in Christchurch, now has a paltry average of 9.5, eclipsing his horror show in England, where he averaged just over 13.
“In this series, we have seen the bat coming down at an angle, that is why there is always going to be a gap between bat and ball. He will not have any time to meet the ball once there is movement,” added Laxman.
Further, the second-ranked Test batsman in the world could only manage an aggregate of 218 runs in the ongoing New Zealand tour, 36 short of his total during England tour in 2014.
“In this series, in these two innings, the old habit of Kohli had come back to haunt him,” Laxman added further.
Despite his forgetful tour to England, Kohli came back in 2018 and mended his record in England by top-scoring amongst both teams, during the 5-match Test series.
Also, the duel between Anderson and Kohli was worth watching as the former tried his level best to get the prized scalp of the latter. But Kohli, winning over his bad habits, did not give any wicket to Anderson throughout the series.
“One must give credit to New Zealand for planning and executing and the plans have worked. Whoever is doing the planning, needs a pat on the back. Stump to stump, channel to start with, away swinger to get him thinking and then the one that comes back into the stumps to get him out,” concluded the former Indian international.
The Indian team was left reeling at 90-6 on stumps on Day 2 of the Christchurch Test, and are now on a verge of a 2-nil whitewash in the series.
