Virat Kohli slump against spin

 Virat Kohli struggle against spin has taken a serious form.It is surely unexpected from a player of such a high calibre.Kohli belongs to a country in which every player has to play against quality spin bowling right from the beginning in domestic circuit. Noone can tell in which next ball he is going to be out.Such a fear has come in the mind of his fans.He doesn't know when to move forward or remain stuck on backfoot.He is not so active with his feet movement against spin.He doesn't show any intent to reach up to the pitch of ball.Neither he plays according to the spin of the ball.As a result,he remains stuck in the crease and bowler takes away his stumps.He is not able to read the fingers of the spinner.

He never used to dominate over the spinner.As a result,bowler gets a lot of confidence.He never tries to get over the top of the bowler.Until you don't cause the bowler to change his line and length quickly,you will not get enough chances to hit the bowler in different parts of the ground.Actually,the situation is totally opposite.Bowler is able to play with the mind of batsman and Kohli becomes more and more fearful in using his feet.Today he doesn't know which ball he has to hit or which ball he should defend.Confidence is surely lacking in his batting against spin.He has forgotten to score runs against spin.

He remains stuck in the crease.He remains quite sceptical to move forward and begins to play on the backfoot.He becomes defensive and try to defend more and more balls on backfoot.His dismissal becomes sure on the cards.After that, in next one or two turning balls,he is surely going to lose his wicket.This is not the problem only with Kohli.Other indian players are failing too against spin.Pujara is not the best,but he plays better than Kohli.These days,spinners are taking loads of wickets against India.Lyon has the highest number of wickets in BGT.Everyone is troubling India whether it is Murphy or Kuhnemann.Kreza has taken 10 wickets against India in an innings.Lyon has taken 8 wicket haul 2 times against India and 7 wicket haul 3 times.He has taken 9 fifers against India.Indian players have a history of playing superbly against spin.I have personally watched the greats including Azhar,Laxman,Tendulkar,Sehwag, Ganguly,Dravid etc.They have dominated in an era dominated by Warne, Muralitharan, Macgill, Saqlain and many others.

Sehwag used to say that spinners are meant for scoring runs.And these days Indian top order is not able to score even 100 runs per innings.Thanks to the trio of Ashwin, Jadeja and Patel,India has been able to win test matches in last 3 years.Contribution of top 5 batsman of India is around only 35 percent in last 3 years.Kohli averages around twenty in last 3 years without a century.In 2023,he has been able to score just 111 runs in last 5 innings.Pujara has averaged around 30 in the last 50 test matches.

In last 23 test matches and 41 innings,Kohli has been able to score around 1000 runs with average around 27 and only 6 fifties without a century.With such a poor batting performance at no.4,no player can be provided that number of chances which Kohli has got.Same is the case with Pujara.With his record in the latest time,he doesn't deserve a place in the team at no.3.

India top order is failing consistently and Kohli along with Pujara and Rahul has the maximum share in this.Sometimes ago,Rahane was also helping in this.But finally Indian team get rid of Rahane.Pujara was also rightly dropped.But Pujara returned back after a great English season.But the same form as in England is missing in his performance.A good opening partnership has become a rare thing.Last 3 test matches have ended in less than two and half days.India has won in two of them,but the issue remains the same.Due to poor batting display by top order of the team,India has not been able to push the test match upto fourth and fifth day.It is a serious concern for Indian cricket.We are winning because of the extraordinary performance of the trio of Ashwin ,Jadeja and Axar.And collapse of Australian batting is also a contributor to this.Australians are not expected to play better against quality spin bowling,but we are expected to play better as we are used to playing spin. So Indian cricket requires a lot of practice especially from the side of Kohli and Rahul if they have to remain in the team.Intent is surely lacking because lack in consistency in performance has become an usual thing.If you are not learning from your mistakes,it means that you have not any value for the thing you have at the moment.And Indian cricket also needs to teach these players that their positions in team are not for ever.If you perform ,you will be in the team and if you are not able to deliver,give opportunity to the next player.Sanju Samson and Prithvi Shaw deserve a place in team and we are not able to give them their positions.

Another problem to be highlighted with these Indian players is the way in which they used to hold the bat in their hands.They used to hold bat very tightly.Holding bat tightly will not allow you to play ball with loose hands and the ball will surely reach to the hands of fielders in case of edges.So there is no need to hold bat more tightly than required.

In the last test match, attitude and body language of the players was also not up to the mark.It was appearing as they were waiting for the IPL.They were in an extra rush to end the match even the result was not on their side.

So the players who are not interested in test matches and matches for country should be given complete relief so that they can focus on IPL tournaments.

In the last two years,there had been a trend of giving rest to players after each series.Everyone is astonished to see the amount of rest these players require or say they require time for shooting advertisements.The main drawback with this method of rotating players is that the players who are best in their form will not be available for the next series and when they return,they fail to continue their form.Virat Kohli was going through such a horrendous form and he was being given rest.Until a player didn't play matches,how could he get his form?This is not understandable.

In the last 2 ODI against Australia,Indian top order failed again.Failure of top order has become the most consistent thing regarding Indian team.Kohli was not able to handle Starc in the first ODI, but in the second ODI he was good.Rahul played an important innings in the first ODI.Today is the day for third ODI.We have to wait for what is going to be special today.