One of the primary focus for the Indian team, going into the third and final Test of the home summer against New Zealand at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, would be Virat Kohli, the former Indian captain, who hasn’t been in his prime touch since the opening game of the series in Bengaluru.
In the first innings of the first red-ball game, Virat Kohli was bounced out against the lanky pacer William O’Rourke before returning to form with a gritty half-century in the second innings. The expectation was high to see the runs flowing off his bat, but in the first innings of the Pune Test, he missed a low full toss against Mitchell Santner.
In the second innings of the second Test, the Delhi batter failed to judge the speed and length of the ball and was adjusted leg before the stumps (LBW). Now, India depends highly on the veteran to help them avoid the first-ever whitewash on home soil in 24 years.
Virat Kohli has been dismissed by the spinners thrice in the series, with Glenn Phillips finding the edge of his blade once on the last ball of the third day in Bengaluru. The Kiwi left-arm spinner troubled him so much in Pune. The nine dismissals against a variety of spinners across formats in the last years at an average of just 28 put him under the bus.
Virat Kohli faces Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav in net sessions of the Mumbai Test
The reports have claimed that keeping in mind the spin threat against the left-arm bowlers, the batter has mostly focused on the reverse sweep. He asked the net bowlers to vary the lengths while maintaining the off-stump line, and the batter unpacked a variety of shots against different deliveries.
As the training session of the Indian team was closing, Virat Kohli displayed an aggressive version of his batting against the left-arm spin bowlers. He used his feet and executed the big shots. When the bowlers cut the length of the balls, he was going back to nail them around the park.
Having no such issue against the net bowlers, he called the two left-arm spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja for more practice. At the start of the session, the players assembled for a team huddle, including the support staff.
The head coach of the side, Gautam Gambhir, and the captain Rohit Sharma had a tight discussion with the players, who later met Gambhir again. The pressure is huge on Virat Kohli and Co. as they have already been blown away in their first home Test series defeat since 2012/13 when England demolished them.
Sri Lanka earned an easy 2-0 series victory over the Blackcaps before the latter’s trip to India. But the Tom Latham-led side had their homework and stunned the Indian team, who is getting behind in their race to qualification for the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25 final.
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Everyone has the responsibility; I cannot say just the batters have let us down. We are not in a situation where we can think of that (new players in the third Test).” The India head coach addressed the pre-match press conference.
Virat Kohli will be walking into the middle on his 600thinnings at the international circuit for India, and he will be eager to do well for the national side to finish the series on a high before their trip to Australia for the upcoming Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25.