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Follow UsIndia are trailing the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 1-2 after a disappointing loss in Melbourne, and the primary culprits were the senior leaders of the side—Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. While India needed to bide time on Day 5 to draw the Test and go to Sydney with the series still squared up, they instead played to the hosts' hands with shots that were never on.
In fact, in five innings this series, skipper Rohit has amassed a total of 31 runs, whereas Virat Kohli, barring that knock in Perth, has failed to get going either. This has put tremendous pressure on the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul. Hence, Sunil Gavaskar has slammed the duo for their strokeplay while adding that Kohli has a massive problem with his foot movement.
“It all depends on the selectors. The contributions that were expected have not come. It is the top order which has to contribute; if the top order is not contributing, why blame the lower order,” Gavaskar told India Today.
“…it’s just that the top-order didn’t contribute, and that is the reason India found itself in this position.”
“The (Kohli’s) foot is not going to the pitch of the ball, the foot is going straight down the pitch, not towards the ball. If the foot goes more towards the ball, you have more chances of hitting the ball from the middle. Because the foot is not moving, you end up reaching for the ball, and that is what has been happening,” he observed.
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Following up on his century in Perth, Yashasvi Jaiswal scored two 80-plus knocks in Melbourne and was the biggest bright spot for India among all top-order batters. On the other hand, this has been a disappointing series for Rishabh Pant, who has found ways to lose his wicket. Particularly on Day 5 in Melbourne, when India needed him to bat long with Jaiswal, Pant played a big shot, only to be caught at long-on.
“The issue is this shot called Sixer in Cricket, which is like a drug. Once you hit a couple of sixes, then you think that’s a real high because once you hit the ball cleanly of the middle of the bat and it goes into the stands, there is no better feeling for a batter. Sixer is a different feeling and it’s a drug, it gets into your system,” Gavaskar said.
“At that particular point of time, there was no need to go for a six. It was not going to win us the match. There was a long on there, there was a deep square leg there, so if a pull shot along the ground would have been attempted, it would have got you four runs, and that is how it opened the door for Australia.”
