Veteran Indian batter Virat Kohli was once again in the firing line after a disappointing show in the two innings of the pink ball Test match against Australia in Adelaide. Coming off the back of a sensational hundred in Perth, Kohli was expected to be the glue that holds India's middle order together, but the batsman failed to live up to his reputation with scores of 7 and 11 in the two innings respectively.
More worrying than the dismissals was the way Kohli got out, especially in the second innings. The 36-year-old chased a wide delivery from Scott Boland and drove it straight to keeper Alex Carey. For the uninitiated, Kohli has struggled in the past with the 5th stump line, which was particularly exposed by former England pacer James Anderson and later exploited by all the major pacers.
In recent years, Kohli seemed to have found a way to tackle the weakness outside off stump and still score runs. With his dismissal against Boland on Saturday, questions about Kohli's technique have once again been raised.
Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar in a recent interaction with ESPNCricinfo stated that there is a ‘serious technical issue’ with Virat Kohli that he is not able to find a solution to.
"I don't have strong opinions on Virat Kohli. I just say the truths, the facts that I see in front of me. It's something that I have said before as well… The technique he has developed to counter that line outside the off stump, the swinging ball, has not really made his life easier," he added.
"Clearly that was a problem earlier of no runs and a technical issue. But after getting a 100, he was troubled by that same line, showed that he has got a serious technical issue to which he just can't find a solution," Manjrekar added
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