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On Day 3 of the Brisbane Test, India's batting maestro Virat Kohli's innings ended early once again, continuing his troubles against Australia's bowlers. Before an early lunch was taken due to rain, India was at 22/3 in 7.3 overs after Kohli was dismissed for just three runs by Josh Hazlewood. This dismissal revealed a persistent weakness in Kohli's style and added to the pressure on the Indian batting line, who had previously lost opener Yashasvi Jaiswal and then Shubman Gill to Mitchell Starc.
Gavaskar on India's top-order collapse
Former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar was highly disappointed with the way the top-order batter showed their impatience, particularly when they had a 445-run mammoth score to chase.
"Look at how Jaiswal threw away his wicket. When you have such a tough challenge ahead of you, you need to be patient and refrain from playing such shots. You cannot score 445 in half an hour, or even 245 runs – required to avoid the follow-on – in that time period. Shubman Gill chased a ball outside off, and so did Virat Kohli, which was unnecessary. So, there was no role of the pitch. They just played poor shots," Gavaskar told Star Sports at the lunch break.
Gavaskar's advice to Kohli
In a now-familiar scene, Kohli chased a length delivery outside off before nicking it to Alex Carey, leading to his dismissal. Gavaskar gave Kohli a remedy by bringing up Sachin Tendulkar's 241 in the 2003–04 Sydney Test, in which he mainly relied on leg-side strokes rather than his signature cover drive. According to Gavaskar, Kohli should follow suit and stop playing off-side strokes.
"Virat Kohli has to be patient, just like his role model Sachin Tendulkar. Remember Sachin’s 241 in Sydney? He didn’t play shots on the off side, not even his favourite cover drive. He has such a strong bottom hand. He can play straight or towards mid-wicket so well. He needs to do exactly that, just stop playing towards off," Gavaskar added.
Sachin Tendulkar's knock in SCG
The legendary Sachin Tendulkar smashed an unbeaten knock of 241 runs against Australia in Sydney during the 2003-2004 tour. The knock is an example of Sachin's god-like temperament and control. Before his game, Sachin was seemingly struggling to score runs, especially against deliveries pitched outside off stump. He lost his wicket a lot of times while going for the cover drive and this even appeared to be the plan for the Aussie pace attack which was led by Brett Lee, Jason Gillespie, and Nathan Bracken. However, Sachin came up with a brilliant strategy against it and refrained from playing the cover drive throughout the knock.
Rather, Tendulkar shifted towards scoring runs on the leg side. He played 436 balls during that 241-run knock and not even once tried playing the cover drive. His knock later got him the Player of the Match award in the match that ended in a draw.
