Virat Kohli‘s shot selection has become the talk of the town as the India Test captain has been consistently falling in the same pattern. In the first test of South Africa, he got twice in the same fashion as he chased a wide delivery to get caught in the slip cordon.
In both innings, he looked good until that lapse in concentration happened which caused his dismissal. The former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar has shown his disappointment over his shot selection. The batting legend, who was on commentary during Virat’s 2nd innings dismissal, was quite upset with the lack of application shown by the Indian captain.
“(It was) bowled at an angled across outside off stump, look at how far he played. Pretty similar to the first innings dismissal,” Gavaskar said on air.
“It was a loose shot, first ball after lunch. Every batsman gives himself a little time, especially in Test cricket to get his feet moving. Even if it’s a drink interval, you need to reset your batting. Kohli, being such an experienced batsman… maybe he was looking to get quick runs to get declaration done. But often, when teams look for declaration, especially in Indian cricket history, they’d be all out,” he added further.
Gavaskar also pointed out that the ball was going further away with the left-arm angle from over the wicket and Kohli need not to play at it.
“Look how far away this ball is, he could’ve left it all alone. First ball after lunch! He’s a predominantly bottom-hand player, the bat has an angle to it which gets him out,” Gavaskar said.
It was 2nd consecutive year for Kohli when he finished the year without a hundred. Kohli played 11 Tests this year and scored only 536 runs with an average of 28.21 which included only 4 fifties.
The second of this series will begin on January 3 in Johannesburg. Kohli would want to turn the fortunes around there as he had a brilliant record at this ground. In 2 matches he scored 310 runs in 4 innings which included one hundred and 2 fifties.
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