India vs Bangladesh: Numbers suggest chink in Virat Kohli’s armour in Test cricket

Ind vs Ban: Finding fault with Virat Kohli’s technique in red ball cricket, once the favourite past time of critics, has become as difficult as looking for a needle in a haystack.

The name Virat Kohli has been synonymous with consistency in batting for a while now. The Indian captain’s dominance across all formats has seen him grow in stature tremendously over the past couple of years and led to him being compared with some of the legends of the game. While Kohli’s limited overs form has been phenomenal as always, it is his effectiveness as a Test batsman of late that has taken the Delhi lad to legendary status already.

Indian captain Virat Kohli reacts as he walks back to pavilion after his dismissal on the second day of the first cricket test match against Bangladesh, in Indore. (PTI)

His performance outside the sub-continent, especially in England in 2018, has been the highlight of his rise among the best batsmen of this era. Thus finding fault with his technique in red ball cricket, once the favourite past time of critics, has become as difficult as looking for a needle in a haystack.

But even the greatest of batsmen have chinks in their armour and numbers seem to suggest that Kohli has an issue that has been bothering him. Kohli’s dismissal for a duck in the first innings of the first Test against Bangladesh in Indore is one of the rare blips in the skipper’s recent track record and should rightly not be looked much into.

The mode of dismissal, leg before wicket, though highlights a possible gap that Kohli can fill to become even more impregnable. Trapped in front by the young Abu Jayed, this was the 28th time that Kohli was dismissed LBW in his career, the joint second highest mode of dismissal for him along with caught behind.

Virat Kohli’s mode of dismissals in Test cricket.

What might be disconcerting for the Indian captain is the high percentage of LBW dismissals for him. At 21.54 percentage, Kohli is second in the list of Indian batsmen with the highest percentage of LBW dismissals, among those with 20 or more dismissals.

Former India opener Gautam Gambhir leads the list with 25.25 percent LBW dismissals. The numbers clearly show that Kohli is an LBW candidate and this is one thing he might want to look into in the days to come.

Speaking about the issue on Star Sports, Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar opined that Kohli needs to be careful about the trigger movement that he has. He suggested that Kohli should be a little careful with his shuffle as he has a tendency to fall over and on pitches which has more movement, he can land into trouble.

Last time Kohli played on this ground he had scored a double century.