Former India captain Virat Kohli's century suffered a prolonged drought as he was again dismissed cheaply on Day 1 of the second Test against Sri Lanka. Playing across the line has almost become Virat's pattern of getting out and this has caught the attention of the legendary cricketer Sunil Gavaskar. Virat could only managed to score 23 off 48 as he was looking good till a delivery from off-spinner Dhananjaya de Silva kept lower than expected to hit his front pad.
Gavaskar was not happy as he pointed out the reason of Virat's dismissal and said the 32-year-old could have avoided playing that particular shot.
"Today you could say that the shot he played shouldn't have been played. The trajectory meant, he went on to the backfoot like the first Test in Mohali but this time he played across his front pad, which meant he was always going to struggle. If he missed it, he was always going to be a candidate for LBW, which is exactly what happened. He knew as soon as he missed and the ball hit his pads, he was right in front. He didn't even look for a referral. So, playing across the line cost him today," Gavaskar told Star Sports.
However, Gavaskar gave credit to the Lankan bowlers and added that the Chinnaswamy pitch was not an easy for the batters.
"Sri Lankan bowlers have bowled well... Jayawickrama settled down after the first over. Every bowler is going to bowl the odd loose ball but they've stuck to their task well. The ball is gripping and turning so it isn't gonna be easy for the batters," Gavaskar added.
Meanwhile, former India bowler Ajit Agarkar said there's "very little" that Kohli could have done with that delivery.
"There's very little that he could've done. That partnership with Hanuma Vihari was good. They put a li'll bit of pressure. They cashed in whenever there was an opportunity. You generally try and play off the backfoot when the ball is spinning but that once just kept low and he had no chance," Agarkar said.
Shreyas Iyer produced a counter-attacking 92 to put India in position of strength on a track that is offering extensive help to spinners as the hosts scored 252 after Sri Lankan bowlers made early inroads on the opening day of the second Test, here on Saturday.
India were struggling at 126 for five at one stage but Rishabh Pant (39 off 26 balls) turned it around with his aggressive yet effective batting.
The left-hander was dropped when he was on four and he made the Lankans pay heavily for the mistake. Iyer then changed the narrative with his controlled aggression, the result of which was a gritty knock under pressure that will enable India to call the shots in the day/night game. Iyer made batting look easy after sharp turn and uneven bounce at the M Chinnaswamy track made the Indians dance to Lankan spinners' tunes.
His entertaining knock that came off 98-balls had 10 fours and four sixes, negated all the good work done by the visiting bowlers in the first session when they had taken four wickets, including that of skipper Rohit Sharma (15) and Virat Kohli (23).
He missed out on his second Test hundred as he was stumped off Praveen Jayawickrama (3/81) going for a big shot. The bowler who had grabbed the momentum for Sri Lanka was left-arm spinner Lasith Embuldeniya (3/94), who also dismissed three batters but was later taken to cleaners by Iyer.
