Virat Kohli recently ended his century drought in the red-ball format as he scored a brilliant 186 in Ahmedabad Test to help India pile a staggering 571 in their first innings. The former India captain, however, failed to put up a similar show in the following encounter, which was an ODI. India won the contest by five wickets but the top-order collapse saw India almost choke in a moderate 189-run chase.
Kohli was dismissed for four by left-arm quick Mitchell Starc, who trapped him LBW with a ball swinging in towards him. While Kohli, or in this case any other batter could have been outdone by Starc’s masterpiece, former Pakistan spinner Danish Kaneria claimed it to be Kohli’s weakness. He also fired a warning bell for the former India skipper citing the dismissal, saying this could haunt him at the World Test Championship (WTC) finale, where India meet Australia again.
“Virat Kohli isn’t comfortable against left-arm pacers when the ball nips back.
“He will have to practice to face Mitchell Starc in the World Test Championship final. The team management should bring in left-arm pacers like T Natarajan as net bowlers,” noted Kaneria in a video shared on his YouTube channel.
Kaneria also opined on the mismanagement of under fire batter KL Rahul. The wicketkeeper-batter, who was dropped from Test after a series of poor scores, played a match winning 75-run knock. He led India’s 189-run chase, after the hosts were reduced 39/4 in 10.2 overs. Rahul first steadied things with stand-in captain Hardik Pandya, and then closed the match with Ravindra Jadeja, who returned unbeaten on 45 off 69 balls.
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Sharing his views on Rahul, the ex-spinner noted: “KL Rahul has dealt a major setback. He was dropped from the Test team and he knows that he will have to deliver now and have to be very sensible. Dropping someone is never the solution. You need to fix the problems.
“He looked very composed today and the Australian bowlers couldn’t hit his pads as he was getting behind the line of the ball.”
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