Virat Kohli is struggling against spin, especially left-arm tweakers, which is not a hidden fact. He was dismissed twice by Mitchell Santner during India’s loss in the Pune Test, which eventually resulted in the home team's first Test series loss since 2012.
The 2012 was also the last year in which Kohli appeared in a domestic first-class match. Since then, it was never required for the Indian maestro to get back to the drawing board to draw inspiration from the home turf because he never really struggled so much or even when he did, the team won and it was carpeted under that.
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But since 2019, the time when his dry run in international cricket began and also the time since when he has not returned to be the Kohli everyone knew, especially in the longest format, his struggles have now forced even his staunchest of supporters to ask him to go back to domestic cricket. One of them is his former Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and India teammate Dinesh Karthik.
“Kohli has not had it easy. The series has not been good to him, three out of four innings, he has disappointed. It’s a recurring pattern where spinners have troubled him,” Karthik said while speaking in a show by Cricbuzz.
“When you reach that level of genius and superstardom, you will be thrown challenges. We all know what he is capable of. But at the moment, Kohli’s Test record in the last 2-3 years, has not been great against spin,” added the former wicketkeeper-batter.
Suggesting what Kohli should be doing, Karthik said, “[He should] probably go back to domestic cricket and focus on what needs to be done. There is no doubt the left-arm spinners pose a big threat.”
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