Ahead of the Boxing Day Test against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, India’s batting stalwarts Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were seen honing their skills in the nets on Saturday (December 21).
The visuals from the training session suggests that Rohit and Kohli worked on leaving deliveries that were anywhere near the off-side or the fourth-stump line.
The star batters faced throwdown specialists in the nets, having arrived nearly half an hour before everyone else.
The Indian skipper batted for nearly 90 minutes, his longest session since arriving in Australia, and looked far more comfortable at the crease.
After facing throwdowns, Rohit went on to face pacers Harshit Rana and Prasidh Krishna, as well as the spin duo of Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar. It looked like the captain practiced against a semi-new ball – a hint that he might continue batting down the order.
While Rohit missed the first Test at Perth due to the birth of his second child, he returned with scores of 3, 6 and 10 in the next two matches against Australin in Adelaide and Brisbane respectively.
On the other hand, Kohli batted for around 40 minutes and tried to overcome his weaknesses against deliveries outside the off-stump.
Apart from his second innings hundred (100) at Perth, Kohli has registered paltry scores of 5, 7, 11 and 3 in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy so far. The pattern of his dismissals is the biggest cause of concern.
During the pink-ball Test in Adelaide, Virat was undone by a rising delivery from Mitchell Starc outside off stump in the first innings while he got out chasing a wide delivery by Scott Boland in the second essay. He had failed to tackle the bounce of Josh Hazlewood's delivery in the first innings of Perth Test as well.
The age-old problem of fishing outside the off stump led to Kohli’s downfall in the first innings of Gabba Test as Hazlewood once again got the better of him.
India would expect the two senior batters to step up in the penultimate Test, with the BGT currently tied at 1-1.
(With inputs from agencies)
