Virat Kohli: The Star Batter Struggles It seems like India’s star batsman, Virat Kohli, is having a tough time with his batting lately. His own mistakes are playing a big part in this. He keeps getting out by trying to hit balls that are outside off-stump, leading to him losing his wicket. In his attempts to reach those outside deliveries, he often ends up getting caught behind the stumps. Despite advice from several former cricketers, he hasn’t been able to change his approach and keeps getting out in the same way. This was evident again in the second innings of the fourth Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Favorite Shot Becomes a Weakness Virat’s biggest strength has always been his off-side play. Whether it’s his cover drive, cut shot, or pull shot, these skills showcase his batting talent. However, his beloved cover drive has now turned into a major weakness against bowlers. In this series, he has been caught behind six times out of seven innings across four matches, all while trying to play that favorite shot. This has made the Border-Gavaskar Trophy particularly disappointing for him, as he has only managed to score 167 runs in four matches, including a century in the first innings. His scores in this series have been 5, 100, 7, 11, 3, 36, and just 5 in the second innings of the last match.
Virat had previously dominated in Australia during the last two series, but this time around, he has struggled significantly. On the final day of the match, India needed 340 runs to win, and there were high hopes for Virat. However, while trying to play a cover drive off a delivery from Mitchell Starc, he ended up edging the ball, which deflected off the inside edge of his bat and was caught in slip by Usman Khawaja. He was out for just 5 runs. Overall, 2024 has been a challenging year for Virat. Before the last Test of the year, he played 10 Test matches, scoring only 417 runs at an average of 24.52, with just one half-century and one century to his name. He also announced his retirement from T20 cricket this year. Following his poor performance, many fans are now calling for him to consider retirement from Test cricket as well.
