Former India player Sunil Gavaskar has dissected Virat Kohli’s dismissal off Mitchell Starc’s bowling on Day 2 of the World Test Championship (WTC) final at The Oval. Kohli was dismissed for 14 runs off 31 balls as India finished the day on 151-5, trailing Australia by 318 runs as well. Kohli was caught by a Starc delivery that rose from a length and he could not handle the extra bounce, causing to the ball hit the gloves and Steve Smith did the rest at second slip as well. While many believed the delivery was unplayable, Gavaskar feels that Kohli could have tackled the delivery off the back foot.
“You could have a look again, today because of the fact that there are only two bouncers per over, most batters are onto the front foot. This means they are not able to get onto the backfoot and give themselves the extra yard where you could have probably let the ball go by dropping your wrists,” the legendary cricketer said on air. “Yes, it was a tough delivery because he was so committed to the front foot that he was not able to withdraw his bat at the last moment. If he had been on the backfoot. It looked like an unplayable ball, but if he had been on the backfoot, he would have been able to drop his wrists.”
Meanwhile, every Australian bowler claimed a wicket after getting all out by the second session on Day 2. While pacers rattled the Indian top order while off-spinner Nathan Lyon struck late in the day to remove top-scorer Ravindra Jadeja (48) to leave India reeling. Notably, they had a good start with Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill adding 30 runs in six overs. However, since then, the wickets started falling on regular intervals. However, Ajinkya Rahane and KS Bharat are currently unbeaten on 29 and 5, respectively. Team India have scored 151 runs so far in 38 overs and they are still way behind Australia’s 469-run first-innings score as well.
“One of the essentials of batting in England is to play the ball as late as possible. So, it means, if you are looking to play the ball as late as possible, your bat is nearer to the ball, not up in the air. Because it was up in the air, they allowed the ball to go through. With the bat up in the air, they were not able to bring it down when the ball nipped in,” Sunil Gavaskar concluded.
