Ganesh Kendale
At his beloved Chinnaswamy stadium, venue of his first fourth innings heroics in 2012 vs New Zealand, Virat Kohli working hard to rediscover his game vs spin
BENGALURU: The noise surrounding Virat Kohli’s struggle against spin has been mounting, only getting shriller as his ordinary numbers against tweakers has burgeoned. In the past 28 Test matches, Kohli has been dismissed by spinners on 21 occasions, with off-spinners doing the bulk of the damage.
Like always, Kohli may have chosen to ignore the clatter, but given his penchant for detail and work ethic, he perhaps has been hard on himself. It showed on Monday at the M Chinnaswamy stadium when the former India skipper spent considerable time facing spinners in the nets. There were the odd deliveries where he second-guessed himself, but there were plenty of assured cuts and hoists over the infield, all of them executed with impeccable footwork.
While making his mark in red-ball cricket as a youngster, Kohli found comfort at this venue. Back in 2012 against New Zealand, he clobbered a century (103) and an unconquered 51, runs that eventually proved crucial in India’s five-wicket win.
Staying with back stories, over the past eight years, Kohli has played against New Zealand in four home matches and, barring Trent Boult and Neil Wagner, none of the pacers managed to dismiss him. But he has faltered against the Kiwis’ assembly line of spinners – Jeetan Patel, Ajaz Patel, Mitchell Santner and Rachin Ravindra.
The recent series against Bangladesh again underscored Kohli’s woes against spin. In four innings, he returned 99 runs and fell to off-spin twice. The tendency to play early or play against the spin has done him no favours.
If ever Kohli needed a comfort zone, then this venue must offer that. This, after all, is his ‘home’ ground with Royal Challengers Bengaluru and the odds are that it could help him rediscover his mojo against spin.
As Kohli looks to climb back among the runs, he’s found a staunch supporter in head coach Gautam Gambhir. Speaking on his stuttering top-order bat, Gambhir said on Monday, “You don’t keep judging people after every game. It’s not fair on them. It’s a sport. People fail all the time. Everyone doesn’t have the best days every day. My job is to back players and select the best playing 11.”
Another subplot to the Kohli story is milestones. The 35-year-old is 53 runs shy of 9,000 runs, yet the 10,000 landmark is already being spoken about.
While Gambhir didn’t take the milestone bait, he outlined Kohli’s hunger to excel.
“He is a world-class cricketer,” Gambhir said. “He has performed for such a long period. And he is as hungry as when he made his debut. That is what makes him a world-class cricketer. I am sure that he will be hungry to get runs in this series, and probably moving forward to Australia as well. Once he starts scoring, he can be very consistent. I’m sure that he will be looking forward to these three Test matches and the series in Australia.”
