The Indian batsmen’s capacity to contend with top-tier spin spinners has been called into doubt following the third Test match between India and Australia in Indore. Former Australian cricketer Mark Waugh is perplexed by Virat Kohli’s lack of runs in red-ball cricket, despite the fact that the majority of the Indian hitters have struggled throughout the series. Virat Kohli’s explosive century against Afghanistan in the Asia Cup last year put an end to his century-dry spell. The batting prodigy added three hundred in the 50-over event after scoring his first century in a T20I. However, against Bangladesh in 2019, Kohli scored his final century in the game’s conventional style.
Although appearing to be in fine touch with the bat, Mark Waugh believes the Indian hitter has been quite unlucky with his dismissals and gets out cheaply. “I cannot believe a player of his class has gone that long without a hundred. He’s been in good touch recently, he’s batted well in one-day cricket. I know it’s not Test match cricket, but the signs have been there in his last three innings in Test cricket that he’s actually playing pretty well.
“He’s middling the ball, he’s watching the ball well, and his defense is strong. He’s just making the odd error and it’s proving costly for him. He hasn’t had a lot of luck. He makes one mistake and he’s out,” former Australia batter Mark Waugh said on Fox Cricket. The former Australian cricketer believes that it is only a matter of time before the batting pro scores his century. While batting, he believes Kohli to be a little too eager, and he speculates that the century drought may be on Kohli’s mind constantly.
“He’s a world-class player and I feel like a hundred is just around the corner for him. He’s feeling the pressure, no doubt about it … I feel like he is a little bit tense when he goes out there in the middle. He actually does play with quite hard hands, he likes to feel the bat on the ball. He does tend to plant his front foot, which technically is not a great thing to do in India. We have seen him play back in the crease in a couple of innings, which is quite well-suited to slower pitches. There’s no obvious weakness, but he seems to make one mistake and he’s gone,” he added.
