Former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar has reacted to Virat Kohli’s failure with the bat in the first innings of the ongoing ICC World Test Championship Final (ICC WTC Final) against Australia on Thursday (June 8).
The onus was on Virat Kohli to rescue India after openers Rohit Sharma (15) and Shubman Gill (13) departed in quick succession to leave the team reeling at 30 for 2 in reply to Australia’s huge first innings total of 469 runs. However, the former India skipper once again failed to deliver in a crunch game as Australia extended their domination in the ongoing final.
The right-handed batsman returned to the pavilion after scoring just 14 runs. His innings was ended by left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc. The Australia pacer had Kohli caught in the slip with a rising delivery that the batsman could only edge it behind the stumps. Kohli was completely taken aback by the delivery that rose from nowhere.
Sunil Gavaskar on Virat Kohli’s dismissal:
While many believe that Virat Kohli lost his wicket on an unplayable delivery, Sunil Gavaskar believes the dismissal could have been avoided. The legendary batsman said opined that Kohli did not have enough time to drop his wrists and leave the delivery from Starc as he was already on the front foot after his natural trigger movement.
“Off the backfoot,” Sunil Gavaskar told Star Sports when he was asked how could a batter deal with that delivery from Starc.
“You could have a look again, today because of the fact that there are only two bouncers per over, most batters are onto the front foot. This means they are not able to get onto the backfoot and give themselves the extra yard where you could have probably let the ball go by dropping your wrists.
“Yes, it was a tough delivery because he was so committed to the front foot that he was not able to withdraw his bat at the last moment. If he had been on the backfoot.
“It looked like an unplayable ball, but if he had been on the backfoot, he would have been able to drop his wrists,” Gavaskar added.
India ended day 2 on the backfoot too. They were on 151 for 5 at stumps, still trailing Australia by 318 runs. India still need to score 119 runs to avoid a follow-on.