Virat Kohli copped yet another failure in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy series after he was dismissed by Australia pacer Josh Hazlewood for just 3 runs on a rain-marred third day of the Brisbane Test. Once again, it was outside the off-stump delivery which troubled Kohli.
Kohli, who has scores of 5, 100 not out, 7, 11 and 3 so far on this tour, has been caught behind the wickets thrice on this tour, and he is clearly struggling to sort out his off-stump woes.
Former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar has advised India Kohli to take inspiration from his hero Sachin Tendulkar’s monumental 241 against Australia in Sydney in 2004 to end his persistent struggle against deliveries outside off-stump.
Notably, Tendulkar played an exceptional 436-ball 241 knock at the SCG when he too was going through a similar phase of getting caught behind during the Australia tour of 2003-04.
During that memorable knock, Sachin curbed his instinct and refrained from playing cover drives. He batted for more than 10 hours and scored the majority of his runs on the on-side.
“He (Kohli) only needs to look at his hero, Sachin Tendulkar. The way in which he (Tendulkar) had kept his patience and control on his off-side game, scoring those 241 runs at Sydney. He did not play any shot on the off-side, or at least in the cover (region) because before that he was getting dismissed while attempting to play in covers,” Gavaskar told Star Sports.
“The shots that he played were pretty much straight or on the on-side,” he added.
The 75-year-old Gavaskar feels that Kohli must look to defend every single delivery in the channel of the off-stump and find other scoring areas like Tendulkar did.
The legendary batter said that Kohli should trust his bottom-hand play more than going for his drives.
“Similarly, he (Kohli) should keep a control on his mind and on his game. If the ball is on the off-stump, (he should think that) ‘I would defend it. I would not try to score of it’,” Gavaskar said.
“He has such a wonderful bottom hand play, with that he can play in that area, straight or towards midwicket,” he added.
