Virat Kohli watches the ball after playing a shot during the first Test match.© AFP
With India currently facing South Africa, former cricketer Ashish Nehra feels that Virat Kohli “would be unhappy with his performance” on Day 1 of the ongoing first Test match in Centurion. Kohli could only register 35 runs off 94 balls before losing his wicket to Lungi Ngidi in the 69th over. Speaking on Cricbuzz, Nehra felt that it was becoming “an issue” for Kohli to “convert good starts to big totals”.
“We expect a player like Virat Kohli to convert good starts to big totals. He must be disappointed with himself too. But, if you look at the numbers, they haven’t come under the easiest of conditions. This also includes the series against England. If you talk to Virat Kohli, he is not that sort of a person who will say that we played against England and South Africa so it was difficult (to score big knocks). He wants to score hundreds, double hundreds, and rightly so. He must be unhappy with himself as it’s a surely an issue”, he said.
On Sunday, Kohli received a full-length delivery swinging away from him from Ngidi. In his attempt to get it away for runs, Kohli chased it way outside the off stump and in the process outside-edged the ball to Wiaan Mulder at first slip. The Indian captain had to leave for the pavilion after a good start.
“If you look at this dismissal, the South African bowlers forced him into making a mistake; that’s the beauty of this game. I hope he gets out of this zone; the bowlers will have a hard time once he gets out of this zone”, Nehra added.
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“The bowlers didn’t give him much room. They forced him to play that shot. We all know that Virat is not at the top of his game like he used to be a few years back. But, the kind of mindset he has; the understanding of the game he has, I don’t think that he is far away from a big knock.”
Day 2 of the ongoing Test match was called off due to persistent rain with play set to resume on Tuesday. KL Rahul (122*) and Ajinkya Rahane (40*) will resume batting for India, who are at 272 for three.
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