Former India player Sanjay Manjrekar believes that Virat Kohli needs to reassess his batting method as the batter is playing everything on the front foot which cuts down his scoring shots. Virat Kohli played a gritty knock of 79 in 201 deliveries.
He missed out on the second test as he suffered an upper back spasm. But on the first day, he showed immense grit and perseverance to stand tall against challenging conditions. However, he didn’t get much support from the other end as India bowled out for 223. The cricketing fraternity is in awe of Virat Kohli for his patience throughout the innings as he scored his second slowest fifty of his Test career. In his knock, he scored 12 boundaries.
Kohli hasn’t scored a century since November 2019
Speaking of ESPNcricinfo, Sanjay Manjrekar didn’t look convinced with his methods as he believes it’s making life difficult for him.
“I think he has got to look at this method of scoring runs. I don’t believe in this thing of ‘who tells Virat Kohli anything about how he should bat. He is one of the all-time greats’. Roger Federer has a coach who travels with him, keeps telling him about things he needs to improve on. Every sportsman needs some kind of guide. And I think this method is making life a little more difficult for Kohli,” Manjrekar said.
Manjrekar pointed out that Kohli is playing everything on the front foot which forced him to be more circumspect when he can score freely. Manjekar doesn’t believe that running out of partners was the reason if he missed out on the century. He urged Dravid to show him some of his old innings when Kohli used to use depth of the crease to play more horizontal bat shots.
“Kohli has other shots as well. We are saying he ran out of partners and hence missed a hundred. But the Virat Kohli of old, with all the shots that he used to play, would have got a 130 in the same number of balls.
“Who better than Rahul David to quietly start suggesting to Virat Kohli whether he would want to look at some of his earlier tapes? How he used to score more freely and whether he wants to have a relook at this front foot commitment no matter what,” he added.
Though he applauded the effort of the Indian captain as he single-handedly took India to a respectable total.
“Hats off to Virat Kohli. He is coming out of a lean patch. Wickets getting lost at the other end. The innings that you saw was all about mental toughness. It was just him grinding runs away. Had he not run out of partners, we would have seen Virat Kohli grind a hundred. And that is the sign of a class player,” he stated.
At the close of Day-1, South Africa also lost one wicket in form of Dean Elgar as they finished the day with 17/1.
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