Indian captain Virat Kohli has had a miserable series with the bat in the New Zealand tour and it ended in a more bad fashion as he managed to score only 14 runs in the second innings. The skipper only managed to score runs at a mediocre average of 9.50 and former Indian batsman VVS Laxman identified the mistakes which led to a failure for Kohli in this tour.
Laxman believes Kohli is struggling away to play against the moving ball just like the England tour and also explained that his bat is coming down way too much.
“The problem for Virat Kohli is not the LBW dismissal, but the way the bat is coming down. This was the way he was getting out in England against the moving ball, especially against James Anderson. In this series we have seen the bat coming down at an angle, that is why there is always going to be a gap between bat and ball. He will not have any time to meet the ball once there is movement,” he said.
“In this series, in these two innings, the old habit of Kohli had come back to haunt him,” he added.
On the other hand, Former New Zealand all-rounder Scott Styris decided to give credit to the New Zealand bowlers instead for planning perfectly how to tackle Kohli and praised seeing the way they dismissed him in both the innings.
“One must give credit to New Zealand for planning and executing and the plans have worked. Whoever is doing the planning, needs a pat on the back. Stump to stump, channel to start with, away swinger to get him thinking and then the one that comes back into the stumps to get him out,” he said.
Despite coming back strongly at the beginning of day 2, the visitors ended the day with an uncomfortable situation as they lost their top order before the end of day’s play. India managed to score only 90 runs with the loss of six wickets. Hanuma Vihari and Rishabh Pant were the men at the crease when the stumps were drawn and they have a huge amount of responsibility in their shoulders.
It was another successful day for fast bowler Trent Boult, who picked up three wickets and troubled the Indian batsman right from the word go. Neil Wagner and De Grandhomme also supported well from the other side and India lost its way just like the first innings.
