The fact that India are currently reeling in the Border Gavaskar Trophy at home has come down as a blatant shock to millions across the globe. After dominating three Test sides this home season, the hosts were expected to decimate the Australians from the very offset as they seemed invincibles in all aspects. Two days into the second Test, and Australia are well on the verge of retaining the Border Gavaskar Trophy.
A massive reason behind India’s dismal performance has been the form of skipper and go to batsman Virat Kohli. In the three innings so far, Kohli has looked like a pale shadow of himself as he has played some mind numbing shots to get out. His decision to leave a straight delivery on the first day at Bangalore stunned everyone.
According to former Australian opener and commentator Matthew Hayden, the excessive burden and poor workload management has been the reason behind Kohli’s fall in form.
“It’s been a pretty long summer for India, so far,” Hayden said.
“Their board has asked them to play a lot of cricket and once you get behind the momentum of the game it’s often hard to claw back. I’m not saying they can’t claw back.
“It’s taken India by surprise in the first game just how diabolical that surface was in Pune and this one as well, which is traditionally such a good batting track.
“We had beautiful day yesterday, it’s a small ground, it’s often got lots of runs and then it breaks up and starts to deteriorate as the game goes on,” the legendary opener added.
“Australia are in Virat’s mind. We’re in the whole country’s mind, actually, because there was such a huge build up to this series.
“India have played a lot of Test match cricket up to this point but this is the series they really wanted to dominate and they’re just not getting their way currently,” Hayden mentioned, questioning the Indian captain’s workload.