With Virat Kohli struggling to get out of the rut, the Indian batting unit hasn’t looked as powerful as it was expected to be in Australia. Over the years, Virat Kohli has done wonders Down Under, scoring runs for fun but the current tour has seen him getting out to similar deliveries time and again. India’s batting great, Sunil Gavaskar, lent an important piece of advice as he tried to decode the struggles both Virat Kohli and skipper Rohit Sharma have endured in Australia.
Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli got out for nine and five respectively in the chase of 340 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in the fourth Test of the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. While Rohit has a best score of ten from five innings in the series, Virat Kohli has been unable to rectify his weakness against full balls outside off, despite being India’s fourth-highest run-scorer.
Virat Kohli and Rohit’s horrific form continued in the crucial Boxing Day Test, where Team India suffered a 184-run defeat to the hosts, Australia, who are now leading the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 with a 2-1 margin, with the final Test scheduled for Sydney from January 3.
Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma’s poor run of form in current BGT 2024-25
While India have constantly backed Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, they will feel that the time is running out quickly for them. Both the players haven’t enjoyed the greatest of times recently, especially in Test cricket.
Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma had a poor home Test season which involved matches against Bangladesh and New Zealand. Virat Kohli scored 192 runs in five Tests at an average of 21.33 while Rohit scored just 133 runs in five Tests at an average of 13.10.
Virat Kohli recently slammed a brilliant hundred in the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Perth. However, he failed again in both the innings of Adelaide. Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma has played just one match in the ongoing series but looked awfully out of form.
India greats Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are going through a massive slump in Test cricket. Virat Kohli did manage to score a hundred in the first Test against Australia in Perth, but he hasn’t matched the standards he set in the first half of his career for a very long time. For Rohit Sharma, the concerns are greater as the Indian captain has looked a pale shadow of his own. With so much talent waiting in the wing, questions are now being raised if the two veterans deserve a place in the team.
Virat Kohli has managed just 167 runs in seven innings in BGT 2024-25 so far, averaging 27.83. He scored a hundred in the second innings of the Perth Test but barring that has done precious little of note. He reached 36 in the first innings in Melbourne but seemed to get rattled by Jaiswal’s run-out and perished soon after, yet again playing a loose stroke outside off.
Rohit Sharma , who missed the first Test, has only managed 31 runs in five innings at a dismal average of 6.20, with a best of 10. He has not looked in any kind of batting rhythm at all across the three Test matches that he has been part of.
In the fourth Test against Australia, Rohit made a solid start but was dismissed for just 9 after facing 40 balls, while Kohli fell cheaply again for 5, continuing his struggle with deliveries outside the off-stump. Both batters have struggled in 2024, with averages just above 24 in Test cricket.
The Indian skipper has two centuries and two half-centuries this year, while Kohli has one ton and one fifty to his name in Test cricket in 2024. Fans and many experts have been suggesting that the Indian batting icons must consider retiring from Tests after their consistently poor scores in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 in Australia.
There are calls from a section of the cricket fraternity to move on from the Ro-Ko pair and promote the deserving next generation of Indian cricketers. Citing the examples of Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara, they want no special treatment to Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, calling for performance to be the only criteria to play in team India.
Speaking of the outside-off problem that continues to bother Kohli, Sunil Gavaskar feels the batter continues to try the cover drive as he has scored thousands of runs while attempting that shot. Sunil Gavaskar wants Kohli to dig into the archives and watch his own videos where he couldn’t stop scoring tons.
After Tendulkar’s SCG example, India legend Sunil Gavaskar gives another advice to Virat Kohli amid off-side woes in BGT 2024-25 series
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has explained the technical flaw behind Virat Kohli’s dismissals in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy series. The 75-year-old pointed out that Kohli’s feet stay stagnant and he reaches for the deliveries, which has posed him threat outside off stump. The cricketer-turned-commentator reckoned that the 36-year-old should use his feet straight down the pitch to hit the ball from the middle of his bat.
The reaction came as Kohli departed similarly for the seventh time in the series (caught behind by the wicketkeeper or in the slip cordon). The right-hander was caught by Usman Khawaja in the slip off Mitchell Starc, departing for just five runs off 29 balls while chasing 340.
Apart from his 100 in Perth, Kohli has managed scores of 5, 7, 11, 3, 36, and 5 in the five-game series.
Gavaskar told India Today (via Indian Express):
“The (Kohli’s) foot is not going to the pitch of the ball, the foot is going straight down the pitch, not towards the ball. If the foot goes more towards the ball, you have more chances of hitting the ball from the middle.”
“Because the foot is not moving you end up reaching for the ball and that is what has been happening,” he added.
Virat Kohli ended 2024 with 417 runs in 10 Tests at an average of 24.52, including one century and a fifty.
“He didn’t play a single cover drive” – When Sunil Gavaskar asked Virat Kohli to replicate Sachin Tendulkar’s masterclass after the 2nd BGT 2024-25 Test
Sunil Gavaskar had previously suggested Virat Kohli replicate Sachin Tendulkar’s masterclass in Sydney from 2004, where he scored an unbeaten 241 without a single cover drive. He told Star Sports:
“What Sachin Tendulkar did in Sydney He was getting outside the off-stump in his previous three Test matches. He was getting out in the covers and slips. He didn’t play a single cover drive. He only played towards mid-off and mid-on and went on to score 241.”
“Just keep control on yourself, that ‘I am not going to play there [off stump line]’. Jaise Sachin ne double century banayi waise Kohli bhi bana sakte hain (So, like Sachin scored his double century, similarly Kohli can do it as well),” Gavaskar added.
Virat Kohli has an opportunity to deliver in the fifth and final Test in Sydney as India aim to level series 2-2. The Delhi batter might well play his last Test Down Under.