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Follow UsLet me ask you one thing.
Close your eyes and imagine Virat Kohli batting. What are the first few things that come to your mind? Of course, the drives, the punches and the flicky wrist?
Not anymore. All that you can imagine now is Kohli looking at the pitch and walking off against spinners. Well, that’s exactly how it panned out on October 25 (Friday) in the second Test against New Zealand, where Kohli’s form against spin further declined.
Out of 22 innings in home Tests since 2021, Kohli has been dismissed 19 times by a SPINNER! 19 TIMES!
You know that Kohli’s form has definitely dipped against spinners, but to have 86.36% of your dismissals against spin at home is ABYSMAL! But now, not only is he getting out, he’s finding new ways to get out against spinners.
One such was here in Pune when the former Indian skipper played a non-existent swat to a delivery that could have easily been defended. After just eight deliveries at the crease, Kohli missed a SWEET LOW FULL TOSS against Mitchell Santner, who was coming on the back of being the worst spinner in the current generation, is shambolic.
Immediately after he missed the delivery, Kohli was on his knees and nearly crunched his bat on the ground, showing his frustration. It is not even a one-time thing now. For the best part of the last three years, it has been a regular pattern. Get out, look at the pitch, and then walk off, shaking your head as if the pitch was committing a cardinal sin.
That’s now become a reality, especially against left-arm spinners.
In the phase where Kohli was legit India’s most valuable player in the longest format, his numbers were staggering against spinners, especially left-arm spinners. In that phase between 2012-20, the former Indian skipper scored 1,866 runs, averaging 74.64 against left-arm spinners.
So, you would have really been shocked to see this decline. But it was always in the making, given the lack of scoring options against spinners, in particular, where he has hardly employed the aggressive ‘sweep’ option that the likes of Sarfaraz Khan haven’t been afraid of.
With three left-arm spinners in the Blackcaps' setup, it was evident that Kohli was always going to struggle. And the tradition continued, with Kohli now averaging 28.78 against left-arm spinners, with nine dismissals out of 21 innings.
No wonder New Zealand’s skipper Tom Latham was quite happy when the reports suggested that India were going to prepare a rank-turner. It is also no surprise that there was a left-arm spinner who played a major role in India’s last four shambolic home defeats.
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