Former India captain Virat Kohli was a tad bit unfortunate to lose his wicket on the first ball after the lunch break on the second day of the first Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 Test match against Australia in Nagpur today.
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Kohli became debutant Australia spinner Todd Murphy’s fourth victim; third one to get out off a harmless delivery. Wanting to nudge an ordinary delivery down the leg side, all Kohli ended up doing was edge the ball faintly to Australia wicket-keeper Alex Carey.
Not the easiest of chances for the 31-year old player, Carey required a couple of attempts before completing a catch to become a source of amazement for the visitors as they were joyous to get a priced scalp of Kohli without really putting in the hard yards.
Murphy, who also dismissed the likes of KL Rahul (20) and Cheteshwar Pujara (7) in the innings, had managed to induce poor shots from both of them as well. While Rahul’s nothing shot saw him handing a simple return catch to the bowler himself, Pujara’s top-edged a sweep on a ball which deserved to be hit for a boundary.
Coming in to bat at No. 5 in the 45th over, Kohli scored 12 (26) before getting out exactly eight overs later. While the right-handed batter’s two confident boundaries in the morning session had hinted at him finding his lost touch in this format, both him and his fans will have to wait for another day to see him ending a rut in Test cricket.
Virat Kohli wicket today video
Virat Kohli’s poor form continues in Test cricket !! #INDvAUS #viratkholiOUT pic.twitter.com/we2RaCRYMJ
— BII2🇮🇳 (@realbii2) February 10, 2023
It is worth mentioning that all Kohli has scored in his last 10 Test innings are 169 runs at an unacceptable average of 18.77 for his standards. While Kohli’s last Test half-century had come during the tour of South Africa a year ago, he hasn’t scored a Test century in more than three years.
