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Team India is currently on the backfoot in the ongoing third Test of the five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy series down under. After bundling out Australia at the score of 445 early on Day 3, India suffered a batting collapse with their top-order batters Yashasvi Jaiswal (4 off 2), Shubman Gill (1 off 3) and Virat Kohli (3 off 16) departing cheaply.
With rain marring the third day of the Gabba Test at frequent intervals, Rishabh Pant also could not replicate his last innings from this venue, as he fell after scoring nine of 12 deliveries. Among all these wickets, Virat Kohli, who sums up to be the most experienced with the numbers speaking for him, also failed to perform.
Sunil Gavaskar drops BOLD statement for Virat Kohli; refers him to Sachin Tendulkar’s 2004 Sydeny Test knock
Seeing Kohli get out in a similar manner like his previous few dismissals, former India cricketer and legend Sunil Gavaskar minced no words while calling out the Indian batting stalwart. Speaking to the broadcasters, Gavaskar recommended that Kohli should study how Tendulkar decided to eliminate the cover drive from his game during the Sydney Test in 2004, which helped him tackle a similar problem.
"Yes, I think practice is different, but what happens in the middle is different. The mindset is completely different. What happens in practice is, you know, if you play a bad shot, you can get away with it. But in the match, if you are out, you are out," Gavaskar said on Star Sports.
"What I think Kohli can do is maybe have a look at what Sachin Tendulkar did way back in 2004. In the first three Test matches, he got out playing for the line outside the off-stump. He got caught at slips, short gully. When he came to Sydney, he decided he was not going to play anything in the cover region. He played only between the bowler's follow-through and to the right of the mid-off fielder, and everything else on the other side. That's the resolve. He hardly played a cover drive; I think only after getting to 200-220 did he play one. That is the kind of mind control you should be having," Gavaskar added.
Watch Virat Kohli’s cheap dismissal in third BGT Test at Gabba:
Notably, Virat Kohli once again fell to his outside off-stump trap in the first India innings of the third Test. He went chasing a wide delivery off the bowling of Josh Hazlewood and gave away his wicket in a simple catch to Alex Carey. Despite these remarks, Gavaskar expressed confidence that Kohli will bounce back in this series and prove his mental strength. “Kohli has also shown it. You can’t score 9000 runs in Test cricket and hit 32 hundreds without having mind control. Over here, there is a second innings, and there are two more Tests to go. So there’s plenty of opportunity to resolve,” he continued.
“They are plotting my dismissals; they’ve got two slips and two gullies. Apart from the resolve that tendulkar showed, Kohli should watch videos of himself scoring big runs,” Gavaskar concluded.
