Despite his fulfilling half-century in the last game against New Zealand in the second innings at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, Virat Kohli hasn’t been able to cage the healthy form with the bat as on a vital day, the former Indian captain has failed to make any significant contribution for the home side.
India came into the Pune Test with 1-0 down and was asked to do everything possible to keep their 12-year-old proud record of not losing a home Test match intact. They bundled out the Kiwi side on the opening day and needed to thump their authority with a successful day with the bat.
Having lost Shubman Gill early on the second day’s play, Virat Kohli walked into the middle with so much energy and enthusiasm around the ground. Having opened his account against Mitchell Santer, he looked to club the full toss through mid-on for a boundary.
But the Delhi-born missed the delivery, and it went on to hit the middle stump as India found themselves struggling at 56/3 and eventually were bundled out for 156 in their first innings to hand over the visiting side a lead of over 100 runs.
Anil Kumble pointed a finger at batters missing domestic cricket after the failure of Virat Kohli
The reports claimed that most of the Indian batters would need to go back to domestic cricket and be part of the Duleep Trophy 2024 before featuring in the two-match Test series against Bangladesh. Shubman Gill, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, and Sarfaraz Khan were part of the first game along with Axar Patel, but none of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma turned up.
When India made their trip to Sri Lanka for the ODI series in August, they were challenged on those tracks before the bowling of Wanindu Hasaranga, Jefferey Vandersay, and Maheesh Theekshana. This has become a new issue in Indian cricket, where their batters fail to collect runs against the spinners.
The former captain of the side, Anil Kumble, who has been a renowned commentator now, pointed a finger at the batters’ absence from the domestic circuit, besides suggesting that the Irani Cup or such events would have helped them to get the attention back.
“Perhaps just one or two innings in a match situation could have helped. Being in an actual game is more beneficial than just practice; it gives an upper hand.” The former leg-spinner for India expressed this in an interaction on Jio Cinema.
“If he feels that playing earlier would have benefited him, and the team management agrees, then maybe it would have. However, I don’t think we can look at that as the only reason for his struggles against spin.” The veteran noted.
Mitchell Santer used the conditions pretty well and besides getting the wicket of Virat Kohli, he also found the prize scalps of Ravindra Jadeja, Sarfaraz Khan, Ravichandran Ashwin, and others and ended up with 7/53 in 19.3 overs.
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Even the part-time off-spin of Glenn Phillips was hard to face Virat Kohli and co. as they kept on losing wickets at a constant rate throughout the entire day.
“When he’s come to the crease, the pitches have often favored spin, which is a significant factor. His challenges against spin at the start of his innings haven’t been solely due to mindset but also conditions that aided spinners. This contributed to the dismissals of Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli to the left-arm spin of Glenn Phillips, who was brought on as a strategic move. Even the best modern-day batters find these situations tricky.” Anil Kumble explained further that India finds themselves in a terrible position of losing a home Test series after 12 years.