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Ravi Shastri wants Virat Kohli to ignore the noise and bat how he did in the first innings at MCG.
Virat Kohli (AP Photo)
Former India coach Ravi Shastri wants Virat Kohli to ‘forget everything else’ ahead of the final innings of the Melbourne Test of the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy and bat how he did in the first essay. Shastri also invoked his famous Hindi one-liner ‘bhaad mein gaya’ to tell him that whatever people are saying about him can go to hell.
Kohli scored 36 (86) in the first innings at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. He looked the most comfortable he has in the series, batting with almost 90% control, leaving deliveries outside off and easily pulling and flicking everything on his body.
However, his century stand with Yashasvi Jaiswal on the other end broke due to a miscommunication between the two and saw the latter get out. Kohli looked tangibly out of focus after that and ended up edging a length ball from Scott Boland behind the wicket.
“My advice would be that you should bat exactly how you batted in the first innings,” Shastri said on Star Sports. “Forget everything else. Jo bhi log keh rahe hai vo bhuul jaao, vo bhaad mein gaya (Whatever people are saying, forget it, that can go to hell). Bat how you have been doing because your purple patch will come. Discipline is discipline. Leave the balls outside off, make Australia bowl to your body, show patience, show discipline. A lot of runs will come. I am saying Virat Kohli will score a ton of runs in the next two to three years if he takes this approach.”
India will have their task cut-out to win the Test and go 2-1 up in the five-Test series. Australia ended the day 333 runs ahead of the visitor’s score with a wicket in hand.
More than 332 runs have never been successfully chased in the final innings at the MCG — even the last such case over 100 years ago — while no team has been able to win a Test here by chasing more than 250 runs this century.
Kohli has an excellent record at the MCG. He has previously scored a 169 (272) and a 82 (204) here but both knocks came in India’s first innings. His highest second innings score here is 54 (99), which he’ll have to better on Monday to help his team.
