Virat Kohli – IND vs AUS, Virat Kohli: Is playing cover drive a compulsion or something else… Why is Virat Kohli not learning from Sachin Tendulkar? Is this the reason – ind vs aus 5th test sydney why virat kohli is not learning from sachin tendulkar 241 runs innings off stump ball weakness india australia tspoa

Virat Kohli is the king of the cricket world… but his batting figures in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25 were quite shameful. The same scene to which the fans have become accustomed was seen in the second innings of the Sydney Test against Australia. King Kohli was out after scoring just 6 runs in the second innings. Kohli stuck his bat on the outgoing ball of fast bowler Scott Boland and lost the wicket. Steve Smith caught him at second slip. Kohli became the victim of this fast bowler for the fifth time in Test cricket.

Losing wickets again and again on the same pattern

The pattern of Kohli’s dismissal in the second innings of the Sydney Test was the same. That means losing a wicket while trying to hit a cover drive on a ball outside the off-stump. In the current series against Australia, Kohli got out behind the wicket a total of 8 times while playing the ball in the direction of off stump. The special thing is that apart from this, Kohli was not out in any other way in this series. Let us tell you that Kohli had played a century innings (100*) in the Perth Test, in which he remained not out.

The way Virat Kohli has been out in this entire series, it has broken the expectations of the fans as well as the Indian team. Kohli could have at least learned from his idol Sachin Tendulkar. Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar had scored 241 not out against Australia at Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) in the year 2004. During that historic innings, the Master Blaster had avoided playing the cover drive a lot.

Virat Kohli is not able to learn from that innings. Sachin Tendulkar had shots like upper cut, square cut etc., due to which he scored runs easily in Sydney even without cover drives. Kohli also has the ability to play such shots, but he is not even trying such shots. If Kohli tries such shots then perhaps this weakness of his will disappear. Right now he is losing his wicket due to the greed of cover drive because it is his favorite shot. He has scored a lot of runs on the basis of this shot in international cricket. It is a different matter that cover drive has become his ‘weakness’ for some time now.

The mistake that Virat Kohli is making now, Sachin Tendulkar was doing something similar during the Australian tour of 2003-04. Sachin was repeatedly playing the ball going out and losing his wicket while driving. After that came the Sydney Test match, where Sachin Tendulkar was determined that he would avoid playing cover drives. If we look at Sachin Tendulkar’s innings of 241* runs, there were only a few shots in the entire innings which came towards cover. All the remaining shots were hit by Sachin on the on side. Sachin himself later admitted that the Australian bowlers were troubling him by bowling outside, so he decided not to play the cover drive.

Kohli scored runs at an average of 23.75

If seen, Kohli’s journey with the bat has been completed in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25. 37-year-old Kohli had shown signs of returning to form by scoring a century in the Perth Test, but after that century, it seemed as if the former Indian captain’s bat got rusty. In this series, Kohli has scored 190 runs in a total of 9 innings at an average of 23.75. Kohli’s high score was 100 runs not out. Kohli could not even reach double digits on five occasions.