Virat Kohli’s home record against spinners still reads unbreached. On Friday, on the second morning of the second Test in Pune, he fell for one to New Zealand left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner. His dismissal was strange: he played for a full toss and missed it altogether to become a victim of the action.
This was the 19th such dismissal of Kohli by a spinner at home since 2021, and he averaged 30.2 across those 22 innings. “Maybe it was a poor choice by him, to find his hands to the full toss,” said Indian spin legend Anil Kumble while commenting on Kohli’s shot selection.
“Was very surprised because that’s the shot he doesn’t look to play at all,” noted Kumble on JioCinema. “He came in, opened up his stance to mainly counter the ball coming back in the way Shubman Gill got out. I thought that was a good approach to playing the left-arm spin.”. Probably he was a little late to recognize that this was a full toss and wanted to go across which is unlike Virat Kohli. Even if he’s looking to go across, it’s mostly with a straight bat that he looks to play through midwicket but here perhaps went a bit late.
He said, “Indian pitches have favored spin in the last few years. It is very important for any batsman to survive the first 10-20 deliveries so he can get used to the conditions.
“The pitches over the last few years have aided spin,” Kumble explained. “When he’s (Kohli) come in to bat, generally, as an overseas spinner in Indian conditions, you are on the defensive. Whereas here, you are in the attacking mode.”. All of a sudden, something changed. That is not easy for any middle-order batsman to come straightaway on to a turning ball and survive. I said 10-20 balls that you need to play and that’s where the challenge has been for even some one of the quality of Virat Kohli.
He agreed with former India batter and commentator Abhimanyu Mukund on the show that Kohli might have benefitted playing some of his domestic cricket, but clarified this wouldn’t be the sole reason for Kohli’s struggles against spinners.
“Yeah, maybe just one innings or a couple of innings would have helped. Playing in a match situation than the amount of practice that you do certainly is an upper hand for anyone. Maybe if the team management felt that would have perhaps helped his game to start off against spin,” Kumble said.
He added, “But I don’t think that you can just look at that as one factor for the dismissals he has had especially against spin because I feel when he’s walked in, the pitches have been conducive to the spinners rather than the other way around.”. Over the few years that we have seen him struggle against spin especially at the start of his innings has been not just about the attacking mindset of a spinner but also the conditions.