Why Virat Kohli stands exposed in Australia
Two innings, twelve balls, and two ducks. This is how a new chapter in Virat Kohli’s career begins in Australia. It sounds unusual for fans and supporters. Such a start for a batsman of his caliber isn’t just a setback, but a complete failure. What’s happening to one of the greatest players of our time? Why Virat Kohli stands exposed in Australia.
Old Sins and New Problems: Vulnerability Beyond Off-Stamp
Let’s face it. When you play at the top level for as long as Kohli has, repeating patterns inevitably emerge. Ten times, fifty times—that’s the law of the game in big-time cricket. But when the same mistakes start to haunt you with enviable consistency, it’s no longer an accident, but a system.
Take, for example, his eternal struggle with off-stump balls Let’s remember England 2014 and James Anderson. It was a long time ago, but the problem doesn’t seem to have gone away. In the past, Kohli had the stubbornness and youth to turn things around. But can he do the same at 36? The question, you know, is rhetorical.
In Australia, everything is going against him. Last week, he was caught on point, and before that in the Test series, all eight of his failures were at catches behind the stumps. A disappointing picture emerges. Kohli used to be a virtuoso at solving such conundrums, saved by his phenomenal agility in crises and incredible coordination. But what if these superpowers start to fail?
Kohli seems to have fallen into a trap, partly of his own making. After a string of defeats at wide ball, he apparently decided to play more strictly and hit straight, toward mid-off and extra-cover, believing it was safer. But logic dictates that if the ball is wide, it should be played between square cover and point. By trying to hit straight, he almost closes the plane of the bat, which forces him to play inside the line of flight of the ball. The result? The treacherous outside edge comes into play with alarming regularity.
Why Virat Kohli stands exposed in Australia: Slow reflexes and technique questioned
But what about balls that go inside? Xavier Bartlett’s leg-before-wicket is not an isolated incident. Something similar has happened before, for example, in Birmingham in 2018 from Stokes. Throughout his career, his bat has descended in an unusual trajectory, as if from the third slot, which initially made him vulnerable to such deliveries. Previously, his reaction speed, comparable to the speed of light, saved him. But time spares no one, and these split seconds he now lacks became the difference between a boundary and a march back to the pavilion.
Because of the unique angle at which his bat comes down, he requires additional micro-corrections to compensate for this movement. When natural coordination, once automatic, fails, LBW losses or bowling from an inswinging delivery are no longer a rarity. The same thing happened to Rahul Dravid at the end of his career. History, as you can see, has a tendency to repeat itself.
No one knows Kohli’s game better than himself. And no one understands better than him what it takes to get out of this hole. But, alas, time, his main ally, is slowly turning into an opponent. If we answer the question why Virat Kohli stands exposed in Australia, it is because he is no longer playing as often as he used to and it is becoming increasingly difficult for him to maintain that competitive fire that has burned within him all these years.
Can the great Virat Kohli find the answer and adapt again when it seems like all the cards are against him? This is perhaps the most intriguing challenge of his career. And how he responds to it will determine the outcome of his legendary story. We’ll be watching with bated breath.
