According to legendary Sunil Gavaskar, Virat Kohli's ploy of trying to negate swing by meeting the ball early has backfired in the recently concluded rescheduled fifth Test match against England. He also feels that the star player is also running out of luck.
In the Test, where India lost by seven wickets, Kohli scored 11 and 20 runs.
"The trick to play in England is to play as late as possible. Then you are allowing the ball to do its bit and then you are playing the ball. From what little I saw in the highlights, it seemed Kohli was looking to reach for the ball, trying to play the ball early," Gavaskar said.
Talking about how Kohli is running out of luck, the former India player added, "But the first mistake he is making is turning out to be his last mistake. Maybe he is not having the run of luck at the moment."
"I think you plan a little bit, visualize what the bowler is going to do the next day. Therefore, you can stay outside the crease but you can go with a pre-meditated plan of batting, which means the bowler has to bowl the same line you are expecting. If he doesn't bowl in those lines, you are in trouble," he said.
Kohli has been off-coloured for a while now. His performance in the 15th edition of IPL was criticized a lot. He is now just four months short of completing three years without an international ton.
He pointed out that Kohli had enjoyed success in England in 2018 as he looked to play the ball very late. Back in 2018, Kohli had become the second Indian to score a century at Edgbaston.
"Therefore, he was not looking like he was in 2018 when he was looking to play it very late around the off-stump."
Gavaskar feels the reason behind Kohli's new approach could be the dip in form and paucity of runs in recent years.
"This could possibly be his issue because he hasn't been among the runs. When you are not in form, you look to play almost every ball, and hit each one of them, in a bid to score runs. Maybe that's something that can he look at," he added.
Kohli got caught behind in the first innings, in the second essay he was dismissed off an unplayable delivery from Ben Stokes that suddenly kicked up from length.
"Cricket is always about instinctive action. And while you are giving yourself just that extra bit of preparation by trying to understand the bowler's strengths, at the end of the day, it's an instinctive game," he further added.
(inputs from PTI)
