Last Updated: February 04, 2023, 12:27 IST
Virat Kohli would be hoping to score a hundred in the Border Gavaskar Trophy.
Pathan however feels that Kohli should adopt a more aggressive approach against spinners during the series against Australia.
Former India captain Virat Kohli has a marked rivalry with the Aussies which began way back in 2012 when he slammed a hundred at the Adelaide Oval. In this ill-tempered innings, he had been found guilty of sledding back to Aussie fielders who started chirping as soon as he came onto the crease. His celebration was something that caught the eye of everyone. To sum it all up, it was hard to imagine that the lad was playing in his maiden Australian tour.
Three years later he was back and scored twin tons at the same venue. It was beginning of a love affair. Kohli vs Australia. However, times have changed and Kohli’s recent struggles against spin is something which is no longer a secret. This is the same fact that was highlighted by former India cricketer Irfan Pathan who called it as the ‘most embarrassing’ stat.
“Especially, how he plays against the spin. If you see his numbers from 2020 to now in Test cricket, those are embarrassing numbers, for a guy like Virat Kohli who is an absolute legend of Indian and world cricket, having scored nearly 25,000 runs. When you see you can’t even have an average of 30 for three years, that’s a long period of time, so I think that’s one thing he will have on his mind,” he said on Star Sports’ show ‘Game Plan.’
It hasn’t been the best of times for Kohli in Test cricket, having scored only 917 runs during the period, in 20 Tests. He is also yet to score a century in the format, having last reached the three-figure mark in November 2019.
Pathan however feels that Kohli should adopt a more aggressive approach against spinners during the series against Australia.
“At the same time, how he is going to be countering the spin of Lyon as well as Agar because he has been struggling against spin especially. I think the one thing he can do personally as well is try to be a little more aggressive because the strike rate against spin has come down as well. I know we are talking about Test cricket here but sometimes being slightly more aggressive against spin might actually make you better in that counter when you are facing guys like Nathan Lyon, who is outstanding with his spin, extra bounce and he gets that ball going away from the right-handers as well,” he said.
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