Umesh Yadav deliveries leave Virat uncomfortable; one shatters stump

For unexpected moments like these net sessions can be extremely mundane affairs where cricketers go through the motions, get their run-ups marked, knock in their bats and leave after obliging the net bowlers with their autographs.

Chasing a wide ball is one thing. Getting squared up by pace and have the off-stump broken into half is a different deal altogether.

In successive Umesh Yadav deliveries, India’s stand-in captain and batting mainstay Virat Kohli was dealt two jolts during nets at the Barabati Stadium at Cuttack in Odisha.

A third attempt of getting bat on ball going wrong as well meant Kohli left Friday’s nets an anxious batsman.

But for unexpected moments like these net sessions can be extremely mundane affairs where cricketers go through the motions, get their run-ups marked, knock in their bats and leave after obliging the net bowlers with their autographs.

If a batsman is as good as his last innings, the century against West Indies in Dharamsala not long back says Kohli is right on top of his game. Except that inclination to play away from the body keeps haunting him time and again.

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Kohli looked in no discomfort at all either defending or attacking the remaining 10 of the 12 odd deliveries he faced from Yadav.

So peeved was Kohli with himself that he did not bother asking for a replacement stump. After facing one more delivery, he left the nets shaking his head. And a fairly long chat with Yadav later showed Kohli is desperate to correct his technique.