India’s star batter Virat Kohli has come under scrutiny for his twin failures in the pink-ball Test against Australia at the Adelaide Oval. He returned with scores of 7 and 11 as the visitors lose the match by 10 wickets.
In the first innings, Kohli was undone by a rising delivery from Mitchell Starc outside off stump while he got out chasing a wide delivery by Scott Boland during the second essay.
Ahead of the third Test in Brisbane, Kohli is training hard in the nets, as revealed by former India spinner Harbhajan Singh.
Speaking on Star Sports, Harbhajan mentioned that Kohli has been a front-foot batter but is working on his back-foot game to counter the bounce the Gabba pitch has to offer.
"Yes, whatever little I have seen him batting in the nets today. I have played a lot of cricket with him. He is a front foot player. Knowing the bounce on Indian soil, you have to be on your front foot. The people who have played here, the likes of Ricky Ponting, Steve Waugh, Langer, Hayden. They were good back foot players, because of the bounce. It is the kind of bounce you get in Australia, you have to be good player of bounce. You need to have a good backfoot game. That's what he was practising," Harbhajan said.
Kohli was dismissed for just five runs in the first innings of Perth Test, failing to tackle the bounce of Josh Hazlewood's delivery. However, the 36-year-old made it count in the second innings as he played an unbeaten knock of 100 to set-up India’s 295-run victory.
Harbhajan is hoping for Kohli to make a comeback in the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, starting December 14.
"Specifically I have noticed today. He was playing a lot of deliveries on the backfoot. He was going forward for the fuller ball but those balls which were slightly shorter than the length of full ball, he was either leaving or trying to play them. The ball from the back foot, he knows that Gabba will be a different wicket where he will get to face a lot of bounce and pace and that back foot game needs to be included in his game. Good to see him working on the game. I am sure, knowing Virat Kohli, we have seen him making a comeback after every setback," he remarked.
