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Sunil Gavaskar explains how Virat Kohli benefitted after making a slight adjustment in his batting stance for the bouncy Australian pitches.
Virat Kohli scored a century in the second innings of Perth Test. (AP Photo)
Virat Kohli has alleviated the concerns surrounding his form with a majestic Test hundred in Perth as India took 1-0 lead over Australia in the five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The innings was a throwback to the times when Kohli dominated bowlers and scored centuries for fun. Batting legend Sunil Gavaskar pointed out the Kohli made adjustment to his stance which helped him negotiate the bounce better.
In the first innings of the series opener, Kohli was dismissed on just five as India were skittled for 150. However, Gavaskar observed that the former captain made a couple of tweaks to his stance which gave him the height to deal with the short deliveries.
“His (Kohli) body was completely relaxed when he came into bat in the second innings,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports. “In the first innings, because of the fact that India had lost two wickets early, he would have also been under pressure. In that second innings, you could sense apart from changing that stance, I think he also got his legs, which were maybe just a little bit wider at the start. Just a little bit, maybe I’m thinking too much, but that little thing might have given him that height he wanted. Well, in Australia, on the bouncier pitches, you need that edge.”
The century was Kohli’s first in Test cricket since July 2023 and Gavaskar feels that every time the Indian batter walks out to bat, he’s expected to score a century.
“It’s like I said in commentary that Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Rafa Nadal, they are title winners. If they lose in the semi-finals, people say, ‘Oh, they’re not in form.’ Anybody else getting into the semi-finals, you would say, ‘Oh, what a wonderful performance’,” Gavaskar said.
“Similarly, with Virat Kohli, because everybody is so used to him scoring so many hundreds quite regularly, when he doesn’t score 100, even if he’s getting 70-80—which a lot of guys will be very happy to get—people say, ‘Look, he’s not scoring runs.’ And that is the reason why there was that feeling. But then again, Indian fans, they’re greedy fans. They’re not going to be happy with their idol scoring only 60-70s. They want their icons, their idols, to score hundreds, and that is the reason there was this little talk about, ‘Oh, he hasn’t got a hundred since July 2023.’ July 2023 is just about a year ago,” he added.
