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‘That is the case with Virat’: India star decodes Kohli's failures against spin, says 'maybe his game has dropped...’
Virat Kohli has not been in great touch in the red-ball format managing just 174 runs in his previous ten Test innings in the subcontinent.
Having started the Border-Gavaskar Trophy on a commanding note, Team India will look to carry forward the momentum when the action shifts to New Delhi from February 17. The series opener saw Rohit Sharma slamming a brilliant ton, while star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja made an impact in both the departments. R Ashwin too had a field outing in Nagpur, claiming five wickets in the second innings and Axar Patel played a handy knock to blow Australia away.
Virat Kohli, however, remained silent as he could only manage 12 before being packed by debutant Todd Murphy, who finished with seven wickets. Now with the second Test scheduled to be played at his home ground, the focus will automatically shift to the former India captain, with legendary batter Sunil Gavaskar also predicting a century.
Kohli, however, has not been in great touch in the red-ball format managing just 174 runs in his previous ten Test innings in the subcontinent. Unable to notch a single half-century in either of the ten innings, there have been a few voice of concern regarding his vulnerability against the spinners, who have dismissed him seven times in the 10 outings.
Sharing his thoughts on the same, India wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik during an interaction with Cricbuzz said: "I think we need to understand international cricket as a whole. When you come in as a young player, as a domestic player you generally tend to play spin a lot better, because you grow up on those wickets, which probably aids spin. You play a lot more spinners and the fact that medium pacers at the domestic level aren't that quick.
“But once when you make that switch and you move on. You take that forward and get into international cricket, as a batter you consciously focus on playing fast bowling a lot more. So that is one of the reason you see most of the domestic cricketers who come into Indian Test cricket team initially are great players of spin but later on probably it diminishes a bit because they use a lot of their energy and their focus is lot on playing medium pacers. And I'm pretty sure that is the case with Virat Kohli.”
Continuing further, Karthik said: "You look back at time I'm sure he's a better player of fast bowlers than he started out. Maybe his game against spin has dropped a bit, but that is fine and relatively understandable. You don't play as many spinners when you travel abroad, you don't play so much of good spinners, probably you would end up playing in domestic circuit for longer hours, even if you play in the subcontinent.
"You can debate about the fact that he doesn't have played well against spin in recent past, but he's a damn good player when it comes to spin bowling, especially fingers spin bowling. The stats do say he's got out to spin so he needs to work on it.
“The two shots he's practiced a lot that we can see from the videos available on social media is the sweep and the reverse sweep. So despite achieving a lot as a batter, that shows he's trying to improve his shots, which shows a player is willing to learn no matter at what stage of his career."
For a major part of 2022, Kohli endured a string of low scores but found his mojo in the Asia Cup 2023, where he slammed 122 against Afghanistan, his first ton in the shorter format.
Since then Kohli has gone to hit three ODI hundreds and smashed a match-winning 82* in the high octane clash against Babar-led Pakistan at Melbourne in the ICC T20 World Cup 2022. He will now be looking to emulate the same form in the Test format, which will be crucial if India manage to qualify for the World Test Champions, which will depend on the fate of Border-Gavaskar Trophy, where the hosts currently lead 1-0.
