Virat Kohli undone by shot selection, no need to make too many changes: Sunil Gavaskar

Indian captain Virat Kohli has certainly not been at his best lately and his form has become a cause of concern among the Indian fans. In the ongoing Test series against England, the veteran has struggled against the deliveries outside the off-stump as there has been a fixed pattern of his dismissals. As many as five times in three Tests, Kohli has gotten out by edging the ball to the wicket-keeper or the slip cordon.

He did score a fighting fifty in the second innings of the third Test at the Headingley Stadium. However, his efforts weren’t enough England comprehensively won the game by an innings and 76 runs. Speaking of Kohli’s run tally this series, he has slammed 124 runs in five innings with his average being below 25. With these numbers being far from impressive, many fans and experts have raised questions over Kohli’s technique.

However, former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar believes there’s no issue with Kohli standing outside the crease to counter the swing. The 72-year-old instead reckoned that the star batter’s ‘intent’ of playing all deliveries with hard hands has been the cause of his downfall.

I don’t think Virat Kohli needs to make too many changes: Sunil Gavaskar

“I think it’s the shot selection. You have got to keep it simple. He has got 8000 runs, probably the last 6,500 runs he has got standing outside the crease. So I don’t think he needs to make too many changes. I think it’s just the shot selection,” Sunil Gavaskar told Sony Sports.

“At the moment, we talk about intent. There is an ‘intent’ question against Pujara. Here it seems the intent is to get runs. It means there are deliveries you’re playing when you should be leaving those. So it’s basically again a question of shot selection. You don’t have to play at those deliveries. If you leave those deliveries, it’s not going to matter,” he added.

Meanwhile, the five-match series is currently poised at 1-1 after the first three games. This means the winner of the fourth Test would gain an unassailable 2-1 lead. While the England camp would be confident after their brilliant performance, India has some areas to work on. The fourth Test gets underway on September 2 at the Kennington Oval in London.