Virat Kohli failed to make a noticeable contribution in India's first innings of the ongoing World Test Championship final against Australia. The batter scored only 14 runs off 31 balls as a bouncing short ball from Mitchell Starc hit the shoulder of his bat and went into the hands of Steve Smith at slip. Pointing out a major flow in Kohli's batting, former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar said that he needs to start batting from the back foot rather than trying to come on the front foot every ball.
"You shouldn't be surprised when a short delivery bounces more. Virat Kohli has become a front foot player. He goes onto the front foot every ball. If you look at the pictures carefully and the pitch map also tells us that the Mitchell Starc delivery pitched on the halfway mark, that means it was a short delivery. He tried to move forward to a short delivery. Both of his feet were outside the crease. When you get into this kind of a position and the ball bounces a bit more, then you have no chance," Manjrekar said on ESPN Cricinfo.
"Run-scoring for Kohli is getting a bit difficult because he is trying to lunge forward on every ball. The Australian players that got runs in the first innings - Steve Smith and Travis Head - are both backfoot players. So Kohli somewhere down the line has to bring that into his game. Rahane has started doing that," Manjrekar added.
India were bundled out for 296 runs in their first innings. Australia, who had posted 469 runs after getting an invitation to bat first in the game, thus gained a first-innings lead of 173 runs.
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