Former India captain and batting legend Sunil Gavaskar advised the current Indian skipper Virat Kohli to have a conversation with the batting legend, Sachin Tendulkar.
Kohli, once again dismissed in a similar way in India’s first innings in the Leeds Test. He has been chasing the outside off-stump balls quite often and falling prey to bowlers and this time it was against his arch-nemesis James Anderson.
Gavaskar’s comments came after Kohli was dismissed by Anderson on Day 1 of the third Test at Headingley in Leeds for 7 runs after facing just 17 balls.
This was the seventh time when Kohli was dismissed by Anderson in Test cricket – joint-most along with Australian spinner Nathan Lyon. England’s ‘King of Swing’ had dismissed the Indian captain for a golden duck in the first Test at Nottingham too.
Kohli could have left those deliveries easily but he has been too greedy for runs and is going after every such ball. Gavaskar, while commentating pointed out a similar issue that batting legend Tendulkar faced in his prime and how he overcame it in the famous Sydney knock.
In the 2003-04 series against Australia, Tendulkar left all the outside off-stump deliveries and targeted only the leg side of the wicket. He went on to smash unbeaten 241 after facing 436 balls. It helped India post mammoth 705/7 on the board.
“He should give a quick call to SRT (Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar) and ask ‘what should I do?’. (He should try to) do what Sachin Tendulkar did at Sydney. Say to himself that ‘I am not going to play the cover drive’,” Gavaskar stated.
“That is a bit of a worry for me because he is getting dismissed at the fifth, sixth, and even seventh stump. In 2014, he was getting out more around the off-stump,” Gavaskar asserted.
Notably, Virat Kohli has not smashed an international ton in 50 innings as his poor form has become a concern for team India. The India captain has averaged less than 25 in 10 Tests since the start of 2020.
