“If He Would’ve Been On The Backfoot…”: Virat Kohli’s Dismissal Wasn’t Off An Unplayable Ball As Per Sunil Gavaskar

Legendary Indian batter Sunil Gavaskar has remarked that the ball bowled by Australian speedster Mitchell Starc to Virat Kohli (14) was not really unplayable, and the latter could have avoided getting dismissed.

As India find their back against the wall at Stumps, Day 2, of the ongoing ICC World Test Championship final 2021-2023, Kohli’s dismissal was one of the talking points of the day. Standing outside the crease to the fast bowlers, the 34-year-old was greeted with an absolute gem from the tall left-arm pacer.

On the second delivery of the 19th over, Starc bowled a tight off-stump line on a length and managed to extract decent bounce off the surface. Perhaps committed to the front foot, the former Indian captain had no other option but to defend at the ball which was angling away from him, only for it to pop-up and land into the hands of second slip after taking the edge of his bat.

Virat Kohli’s Dismissal Wasn’t Off An Unplayable Ball As Per Sunil Gavaskar

During an interaction with Star Sports Network post the end of day’s play, Gavaskar wasted no time to remark that Kohli could have dealt with the seemingly unplayable delivery by playing it off his back foot.

He further stated that since the 34-year-old was on his front-foot and not really anticipating the short delivery, he could not drop his wrists in time.

“Today because there are only two bouncers allowed per over, not too many bowlers bowl bouncers and most of the batters are onto the front foot. Which means they are not able to get onto the back foot and give themselves that extra yard where you could have probably dropped your wrists or let the ball go.

“Yes, it was a tough delivery because he was so committed onto the front foot that he was not able to withdraw his bat at the last moment.”

India Trail By 318 Runs At Stumps, Day 2

Post Kohli’s dismissal, the pair of Ajinkya Rahane (29*) and Ravindra Jadeja (48) stitched together a 71-run stand for the fifth wicket and initiated the damage control.

However, Jadeja’s dismissal against the run-of-play meant that it were the Aussies who trudged off-the-field with broad smiles on their faces. With India’s scorecard reading 151/5 after the end of day’s play, they were still trailing by 318 runs to Australia’s first innings total of 469.