Former India captain Virat Kohli, who had last bowled in a T20I and Test in 2022 and 2020 respectively, was called upon to bowl in an ODI after more than six years in the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 match against Bangladesh in Pune. As a result, Kohli’s million of fans received a rare opportunity of watching him bowl with an unusual action.
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Even though India captain Rohit Sharma had joked around the prospect of him and Kohli bowling in this World Cup in a press conference a few weeks before the commencement of the tournament, not many would’ve taken his words to heart taking into consideration how inconsistent the senior Indian duo has been when it comes to bowling in international cricket in the last half-a-decade or so.
That said, the same Sharma introduced Kohli into the attack once it was confirmed that vice-captain Hardik Pandya wouldn’t be able to complete his first over after injuring his left ankle. In spite of taking a lot of time to attain fitness to be able to bowl after twisting an ankle, the right-arm bowler was eventually replaced by Kohli for the last three balls of the ninth over.
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With Bangladesh scoring at a healthy run rate without losing a single wicket until then, spectators at a roof-less Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium were losing out on motivation to cheer the home team on a sunny afternoon.
However, the sight of Kohli handing his cap to the umpire and setting the field before bowling in the first powerplay in an unconventional move was enough to send the fans into a frenzy. What followed was Kohli bowling three deliveries with each one of them swinging into right-handed Liton Das (66) and swinging away from left-handed Tanzid Hasan (51).
With his last ODI World Cup bowling performance coming during the second semi-final of ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 against Australia in Sydney, readers must note that Kohli bowled after eight years in this tournament today. Kohli, who wasn’t given another over as expected despite conceding only a couple of runs, also drew numerous heartening reactions by fans on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
A fan present at the venue with a banner which had “Will Sharma and Kohli be bowling today?” written on it visiting a stadium way outside the city on a working day got his money’s worth. A renowned journalist, on the other hand, compared Kohli with former New Zealand all-rounder Chris Harris.
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A strange bowling action.
Harris, who played 293 international matches across formats between 1992-2004, also used to bowl right-arm gentle medium pace with an action similar to that of Kohli. As a result, Kohli, one of the richest cricketers around the world, was termed as a “billioniare version of Chris Harris”.
Harris, who has in excess of 200 wickets to his name at the highest level unlike Kohli (only eight), was more than a handy campaigner even with lack of pace.
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India, who were looking in a bit of a spot of bother before putting an end to an 88-ball 93-run opening partnership between Hasan and Das, have also managed to put curbs around Bangladeshi batters who followed since then.
That being said, Kohli bowling for India in white-ball ICC tournaments hasn’t fared well for them since 2015. It is noteworthy that they have lost all such three matches in this period.
While they had ended on the losing side during 2015 World Cup semi-final, it was followed by lack of victories in ICC World Twenty20 2016 semi-final against West Indies at the Wankhede Stadium and ICC Champions Trophy 2017 league match against Sri Lanka at The Oval.
