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Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar feels that it is a matter of concern that Virat Kohli keeps getting out to the same kind of bowlers in ODIs. Gavaskar’s comment came after the right-hander’s dismissal against the left-arm spin of Rishad Hossain in India’s ICC Champions Trophy opening match against Bangladesh in Dubai on Thursday.
This was the sixth consecutive time Kohli lost his wicket to spin in the 50-over format. Out of these six dismissals, five have come against left-arm spin.
In the recent ODI series against England, Kohli was all at sea against Adil Rashid, and the technique has again come into question. In the match against Bangladesh, Kohli managed 22 runs before losing his wicket to Rishad Hossain.
“It is to a great extent due to the fact that the bat face opens up. Same thing happens when he’s playing against the quicks in Australia. The bat face opening up, looking to play through the covers, opening the face of the bat, that gets him into trouble. So, that is something that he’s got to watch out for, even when he got out,” Gavaskar told India Today.
“A couple of times before he got out, he reached for Rishad, the ball turned, the bat face opened, and luckily the bat face opened and so there was no nick. So, that is something that he’ll have to tighten up on now. But yes, I guess if you’re getting out to the same kind of bowling, then there is a bit of concern there.
‘More pressure on Pakistan’
The former India captain also feels that Pakistan would be under more pressure in the contest against India as they are coming on the back of a loss against New Zealand.
Pakistan lost the tournament opener against New Zealand by 60 runs, and the hosts have everything to do if they want to make the last four.
“Look, in cricket, anything can happen. You need just one player to be the game changer, whether it’s with the bat or the ball. And Pakistan have always had mercurial players, you know, somebody, you know, who will come in and play a blinder or somebody who will, you know, bowl an amazing spell. They’ve always had that,” said Gavaskar.
“So it’s very difficult to say totally that India are the outright favourite. But you look at the all-round strength of the Indian team, the batting depth that the Indian team has, the variety at the top of the batting as well. Somebody like Rohit Sharma, who will go bang-bang from the first ball,” he added.
India will take on Pakistan in a Group A encounter on Sunday at the Dubai International Stadium.
“Pakistan will be under far more pressure having lost their first game to New Zealand. They’ll be under far more pressure against India. But that said, the Champions Trophy is the one tournament where they’ve managed to score over India. Not the World Cups, not the T20 World Cups, but in the Champions Trophy. So maybe that is something that they’ll be looking to hang on to as far as getting their confidence back,” said Gavaskar.
