Kohli is trying to play too early, says Gavaskar

Indian batting great Sunil Gavaskar pointed that Virat Kohli's technique to play the ball early in English conditions has contributed to his lack of runs in the recently-concluded Test series.

England pulled off a record chase of 378 in the rescheduled final Test with seven wickets in hand and went on to level the series 2-2. Kohli, who captained the first four Tests last year, has been out of form in the past three years. 

Across the five Tests, he scored 249 runs at an average of 27.67 which is in stark contrast to his exploits in the 2018 tour of England where he amassed 593 runs from 10 innings including three fifties and two hundreds.

Gavaskar analyzed that Kohli's pushing forward quickly had resulted in his loss of form.

"The trick to play in England is to play as late as possible. Then you are allowing the ball to do its bit and then you are playing the ball. From what little I saw in the highlights, it seemed Kohli was looking to reach for the ball, trying to play the ball early," Gavaskar said on Sports Today.

"Therefore, he was not looking like he was in 2018 when he was looking to play it very late around the off-stump."

Gavaskar felt that loss of form might be playing at the back of Kohli's mind.

"This could possibly be his issue because he hasn't been among the runs. When you are not in form, you look to play almost every ball, hit each one of them, in a bid to score runs. Maybe that's something that can he look at," Gavaskar said.

The former Indian skipper suggested few things Kohli can try few things while batting.

"I think you obviously plan a little bit, visualise what the bowler is going to do the next day. Therefore, you can stay outside the crease but you can go with a pre-meditated plan of batting, which means the bowler has to bowl the same line you are expecting. If he doesn't bowl in those lines, you are in trouble," Gavaskar said.

"Cricket is always about instinctive action. And while you are giving yourself just that extra bit of preparation by trying to understand the bowler's strengths, at the end of the day, it's an instinctive game," he added.