Former Indian batter turned veteran commentator Sanjay Manjrekar feels Virat Kohli’s lack of proper judgment of length has resulted in his recent poor form in Test cricket. With the five-match Test series between India and Australia down under starting in a week, all eyes are on Kohli to see if he can turn his form around as well.

Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald, Manjrekar said, “His judgment of length, whether it’s spin or pace, has gone down. It’s not as great as it used to be. That comes back to him. He was one of India’s best players of spin, and played a lot off the back foot. Now there’s a lot of front-foot play in everything he does, so his perception of length has not been great. That’s a reason he doesn’t have the kind of numbers he’s had in the past.”

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He added, “Once he’s on the front foot, the balls he used to cut and pull off the back foot he was defending. He’s just made his own life more difficult. Clearly, in that series (New Zealand), because the conditions were such [that] he wasn’t feeling confident or hopeful, he wasn’t trusting his defense, he was slightly nervous of mind and uncertain.”

Sanjay Manjrekar also expects Virat Kohli to rediscover his form in the upcoming series down under, saying that the Australian pitches as the reason as well.

“This will suit him. Turning pitches, low bounce, the ball coming slowly off the pitch, everything is not quite as ideal. The way he batted in South Africa against a good attack – South African pitches are even more difficult than Australian pitches because there’s lateral movement right through. He handled that really well,” said Manjrekar. “I would say forget about the home series. South Africa is quite recent. I would urge people to have a look at his numbers there. He looked India’s best player by far that trip. I’m looking that as evidence of what we can expect from Virat in Australia.”