Veteran commentator Aakash Chopra believes Virat Kohli’s repeated failures, especially his struggles against the deliveries outside the off-stump, are a concern as well. He also added that Kohli had seemingly resolved the issue, but it came again. However, Kohli scored only three runs as India ended Day 3 (Monday, December 16) at 51/4 in their first innings of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25 third
Test as well.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel ‘Aakash Chopra’, he said, “There is no doubt that there is a problem. It is well documented. The problem outside the off-stump comes repeatedly and starts troubling you. When he had problems on the England tour of 2014, he made changes in his batting, started taking a massive stride, and changed his stance as well. He has changed his game a lot. However, towards this end of his career, the same problem is coming again. He commits a slight error of judgment against deliveries outside the off-stump and ends up playing them. In fact, it’s not that only. He was surprised by a bouncer and then closed his bat early and almost got caught and bowled off a top edge.”

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However, Virat Kohli almost gave a return catch to Josh Hazlewood while trying to play a back-of-the-length delivery to the leg side as well. In the same video, Aakash Chopra added that Virat Kohli might have to refrain from playing the deliveries outside the off-stump.

“You obviously know that he is not at the top of his game. So what is the road ahead? I think there are two things. One, I remember the Sydney Test match after Sachin Tendulkar was repeatedly getting out to deliveries outside the off-stump. Can Virat Kohli do that? He will have to do that because if he keeps getting out like this, the vulnerability is exposed even more. The other part, which is clear, is that when he got to bat after a long time, he scored a century. So when the ball stopped moving and the bowlers got a little tired, he was at his best. Then there was no judgment error. However, the numbers are not looking good whenever he is getting to bat early,” Aakash Chopra concluded.