Toss: IND chose to bowl. IND: 51/4 (KL Rahul - 33(64)*, R Pant - 9(12), M Starc - 2-25) trail AUS: 445 (T Head - 152(160), S Smith - 101(190), J Bumrah - 6/76) by 394 runs.
It’s been that sort of a day that cricket fans hate to see. Play was halted six times due to rain, and the two session breaks amidst all that. Indian batters never really got going, but most of the damage was done before the first delay of play in their batting innings.
Australia added 40 runs to their score from the previous evening. Alex Carey was phenomenal, finishing the innings with 70 runs in 88 balls. That one six he hit through the covers to Akash Deep might just be the shot of the series so far. They batted for 16.1 overs today, scoring at only 2.47 per over. It was a confusing period of play, as even after rain stopped play when they were 435/8, they carried on and didn’t declare. Pat Cummins and Andrew McDonald probably just wanted to bat India out of the game and frustrate them to a tipping point. And India’s tactics helped them do just that.
India started with Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja bowling from either end. Yes, Jadeja, not a pace bowler, but a spinner. You always bowl your pacers in the morning, especially under cloudy skies. On top of that, Bumrah only bowled 3 overs, picking a wicket from it, and then was taken off. It was confusing to watch, but the Indian skipper seems to have mentally checked out of Brisbane already.
What came thereafter was a familiar collapse. Yashasvi Jaiswal tried to drive the first ball, luckily for him, it caught his edge and traveled to the boundary rope. The next ball he tries to hit an attacking shot once again, this time finding Mitchell Marsh at forward square leg. A nothing dismissal really, and Mitchell Starc’s record against Jaiswal just gets better. Next Starc over, Shubman Gill now falls prey to him with Marsh taking a stunner in the slips. Australia had rocked India early on, and with 6/2, an out-of-form Virat Kohli walked out to the middle.
Koh-ly Hell!
First ball Kohli faces, he goes for a cover drive, plays, and misses. You would assume that should’ve set him straight. But no, a few balls later, Josh Hazlewood pitches it up around the good length, angling towards the 4th/5th stump line, and boom! Kohli goes for a cover drive and knicks it straight to Alex Carey.
I am not surprised, just frustrated. This is exactly what teams look to do against Kohli, and it is a shame that it has become this simple to get him out. Kohli is no longer a “big” wicket, he’s a walking wicket. It is this terminal weakness of his because of which he has struggled over the last few years. When the ball starts moving, bowlers target Kohli’s 4th/5th stump line. And more often than not he falls for it.
Since 2020, Kohli has scored 1964 runs in 65 innings with an average of 32.19. In this period, Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant have scored more runs than him in fewer innings with a higher average. Additionally, amongst batters who have played 40 innings or more, four have averaged higher than Kohli.
Let’s put the averages aside for a minute. In these 65 innings, Kohli has only made 12 fifty-plus scores (three 100s, nine 50s). This means he only scores a 50+ score every 5.42 innings compared to every 2.89 innings between 2014-19. Now it would be unfair to compare what was one of the greatest peaks ever seen in the history of this sport to Kohli’s worst phase, but the difference is still astounding. So what exactly is wrong with him? Age? Technique? Yes, but there is more to it.
Without mincing my words, it is his arrogance that once helped him ascend the heights of the sport that is hampering his growth right now. It is very evident he has a weakness when bowled to around the 4th/5th stump line. This was something he suffered from in the 2014 England tour, but he fixed it and actively worked on it. Right now, it seems like he is adamant not to.
In 2018-19, Kohli’s average whilst playing the cover drive against pacers was 64.25. In 2020-21, it dropped to a staggering 18.40. The cover drive is not yielding him nearly enough runs than it once was. But Kohli seems indifferent to it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t help that the cover drive is one of his most productive shots.
A statistic Jarrod Kimber dug up in 2021 - in the 5 years preceding 2021, Kohli had attempted to play the cover drive 345 times and he was dismissed just eight times from it, averaging at 60 whilst scoring 1.5 runs per ball. As it stood in 2020, Kohli had scored 1038 runs with the cover drive since 2014. He was dismissed 14 times, averaging a hefty 74.1 runs per dismissal. This is still a good number, but amongst batters that also scored 300+ runs from the shot, 24 averaged better than him.
(These ball-by-ball statistics are difficult to collect and I can collect more data when it isn’t just a daily review, so I apologize for the ancient stats.)
My point is, that it’s not as simple as telling Kohli to just stop playing the cover drive. Because if he does, his scoring options reduce considerably. So, what’s the solution? Is Kohli’s career doomed to come to an unfortunate end because of the cover drive? No, of course not.
First of all, let’s make something clear, Kohli is pretty good at cover drives. If he can see off the new swinging ball, he can keep scoring runs off the cover drive. But, when bowlers are trying to trap him with the 4th/5th stump line, he needs to know better to not fall into it. Kohli lacks the discipline to not play the shot in the initial overs. Take Steve Smith for example, he didn’t score a single run through the covers for his first 50 runs, and for his next 51 runs, he scored 29. So, see off the new ball, and then Kohli can exploit the cover drive as much as he wants.
Survival
Right then, let’s diverge from Kohli. The Aussie bowlers were really good today. They observed the mistakes the Indian bowlers made and didn’t repeat them. They pitched the ball farther up, targeting the stumps, forcing the batters to play. For the first few overs, it was an onslaught, and India is lucky to not have lost more wickets. Of course, the rain delays halted the momentum, and KL Rahul negated everything the bowlers tried to do amazingly.
Funnily enough, a batter with a career average of 34 has been India’s best batter this series. He has scored 180 runs in 5 innings at an average of 45. His technique has been amazing, and no other Indian batter has negated the Aussie pacers better than him. He is currently batting on 33, and India will pray he can convert it into a big one. Rohit Sharma is batting at the other end, and it is no surprise he isn’t having the best of times with the bat. The rain delays are not helping, it’s not letting him get into the zone. He should score some runs tomorrow, but even if he doesn’t, you can’t really jump to conclusions because it's extremely difficult to bat at the moment, and India has a mountain to climb.
246
That is the magic number right there - 246. The Indian batters need to find a way to get there. This avoids a follow-on and almost guarantees a draw. Australia will need to bat again, and they will not let India chase anything below 320-330. Of course, this is still a huge score to get to. 195 more runs with 6 wickets to go, in overcast conditions with more stop-go days in the forecast. In all fairness, no one predicted India winning this series and getting to boxing day level on 1-1 will still be a phenomenal effort. The obstacle? Red-hot Aussie pacers versus an under-confident batting side, let’s pray the rain gods sit in the audience of the Gabba, and let us have two days of fine cricket.
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