It’s been 1195 days and 41 innings since Virat Kohli last scored a Test century against Bangladesh. Since then, his red-ball cricket average has fallen sharply from close to 55 to 48.12, and he now only has the highest score of 79. Mark Waugh expressed his disbelief at Kohli’s rough patch.
Despite his prolonged dry patch, it’s important to note that Kohli has looked comfortable during most of his brief stays in the middle over the past three years. It has only taken one mistake, such as a questionable umpiring decision or an excellent delivery, to end his innings. These numbers fail to capture this aspect of Kohli’s struggles.
VIRAT KOHLI HAS LOOKED GOOD IN THIS SERIES
Despite Kohli’s poor numbers in recent years, his batting technique remains difficult to criticize. He tends to play outside the off stump and struggles against finger spinners, but otherwise, there are no glaring flaws. In India’s second innings in Indore, he looked good. But he was dismissed for 12 due to a mistake against Matthew Kuhnemann. He could have played the ball straighter instead of aiming to hit it on the on-side.
Mark Waugh said:
“I cannot believe a player of his class has gone that long without a hundred. He’s been in good touch recently, he’s batted well in one-day cricket. I know it’s not Test match cricket, but the signs have been there in his last three innings in Test cricket that he’s actually playing pretty well.”
“Virat actually does play with quite hard hands, he likes to feel bat on ball. That dismissal in the first innings he just played that too square, if he played that to mid on he would have been okay, but he played it around his front pad. He does tend to plant his front foot, which technically is not a great thing to do in India. We have seen him play back in the crease in a couple of innings, which is quite well-suited to slower pitches. There’s no obvious weakness, but he seems to make one mistake and he’s gone,”
Waugh further added.
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