It isn’t often that one sees India’s great Sunil Gavaskar mincing his words. As Virat Kohli departed after scoring just three runs in the first innings of the third Test against Australia, Gavaskar was quick to call out the India batter’s poor shot selection. Facing Josh Hazlewood, Kohli edged the ball into the hands of Australia’s wicket-keeper Alex Carey despite the fact that the ball was quite far from the stumps. Gavaskar, in his blunt criticism of Kohli, said that there was no need for him to play the 7th or 8th stump delivery.
“If it was on the fourth stump I could understand,” Gavaskar said on Channel 7 after Virat was dismissed for a single-digit score on Monday.
“This was wide, on the seventh, eighth stump, you could say. There’s no need to play that,” he added.
Gavaskar feels Kohli would be extremely disappointed with the manner in which he was dismissed, understanding how much India needed him to play a big knock on the day, knowing Australia had put 445 runs on the board.
Gavaskar even felt that Kohli lacked the patience required to excel on The Gabba’s tricky surface.
“He’d be very, very disappointed, he’d be very upset with that. Even before Rishabh Pant faced a ball, the rain started to come down and the covers have come on. If Kohli had shown a bit of patience he could be not out with KL Rahul,” Gavaskar asserted.
The lure of playing cover drives has been one of the biggest reasons behind Kohli’s struggles outside the off-stump. Even during India’s net sessions, Kohli has been rigorously practicing his treatment of outside-off deliveries. However, in the matches, he has found it tough to curb his natural instincts.
Many pundits have advised Kohli to take inspiration from Sachin Tendulkar, in dealing with this tricky matter, especially on Australia pitches where the balls tend to bounce more than usual.
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