According to Anil Kumble, the former Indian captain and head coach, he believes it would have done Virat Kohli some good to have played a few domestic matches before the long home season of ten tests. This was after Kohli was out for a duck in the second test match against New Zealand. Kohli faced his ninth delivery, bowled by left-handed spinner Mitchell Santner, and was rather unceremoniously, except for the shame of the walk off, bowled out. Kohli attempted a risky cross-batted shot against left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner and, needless to say, paid the price for it.
In yet another episode of his ill-timed bat wielding, this time against Santner, Kohli mistimed the sweep stroke against a ball driven in full, and in the process got the bat and pad line wrong, resulting in the ball sneaking in to hit the stumps. This last moment of lapse in concentration brought his innings to a close and left him utterly frustrated and stared at the broken stumps.
Kumble opined on the platform Sports18, “Maybe just a single or two innings in actual match conditions should have better prepared him. As much as practice is encouraged, one cannot compare it to actual game situation; it has superior advantages. If he believes that the outcome would be positive with a round of cricket or two before the matches, then the management is in tandem, then maybe so. But I don’t think we cannot rule out simply that as the reason for his issues with spin.”
He also went on to say that in recent years, especially in India, the conditions have been more suited for spin which makes it more difficult and advanced. ‘He has also arrived at the crease in conditions where the pitch has been quite spin friendly which is a huge factor. It was not only a psychological aspect that he faced challenges against spin at the beginning of the innings but also environmental conditions that were conducive to spinners. This saw both Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli falling to the left-arm spinning of Glenn Phillips who was brought in as a tactic. These scenarios even the best of the current generation batters find it hard,’ Kumble stated.
Concerns have been expressed over Kohli’s recent performance against spin. Since 2021, in 26 innings played in Asia, he has scored 606 runs at an average of 28.85 and a strike rate of 49.67. He has already been dismissed 21 times which shows his weakness towards spin bowling. India’s batting problems resided further due to Kohli’s trouble at home where the batting team struggled to 107 for 7 by lunch on the second day of the second Test.
In Pune, New Zealand’s spinners Santner (4/36) and Phillips (2/26) took advantage of a turning pitch to rout India’s top order after they had breezed to 50 for 1. In the first T20I, the collapse commenced with Shubman Gill (30) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (30) getting out, followed by another bunch of dismissals that saw India fall short of New Zealand’s 1st innings score of 259 by 152 runs.