The Indian skipper Virat Kohli’s disappointing show on the opening day of the third Test match at Headingley, Leeds has brought a lot of criticism to his way. Virat Kohli, who has been struggling with his form for a long time, once again disappointed the fans as he failed to perform yet again. He had walked out to bat when the Indian side was in some deep trouble, however, he failed to take his team to the safe side.
Having bowled a couple of outswingers, James Anderson went for one full outside the off-stump and managed to lure the Indian skipper into a false shot. Virat played a very loose-looking shot as he looked to drive through the covers but only managed an outside edge and the ball landed on the safe hands of England wicket-keeper Jos Buttler.
Recently, talking about his dismissal, former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar said that the initial back and across movement is not helping the Indian skipper at the moment. Explaining his point, Gavaskar said that while England skipper Joe Root’s shuffle across the stumps allows him to stay middle-leg in his stance just before the bowler is about to deliver the ball but on the other hand, the Indian skipper is taking him further close to the off-stump when the bowler is delivering the ball. He said:
“That is a bit of a worry for me because he is getting dismissed at the fifth, sixth, and even seventh stump. In 2014, he was getting out more around the off-stump,”
Furthermore, Gavaskar compared his mode of dismissals with the 2018 series where Virat Kohli scored a lot of runs in England. He said that three years ago Kohli was leaving most of the balls that he is getting dismissed in this series and also advised the Indian skipper to take help from Sachin Tendulkar’s book, and maybe play the way Sachin did in the famous Sydney Test in 2004 against Australia.
For the unversed, Sachin was also struggling with the same issue and during that series, he decided not to play the cover drive for the most part of that innings. He said:
“He [Kohli] should give a quick call to SRT [Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar] and ask ‘what should I do?’. [He should try to] do what Sachin Tendulkar did at Sydney. Say to himself that ‘I am not going to play the cover drive’,”
