Indian cricket team star batter Virat Kohli had a horrible outing during the first Test match against Bangladesh in Chennai. Virat registered scores of 6 and 17 as Hasan Mahmud dismissed him in the first innings and Bangladesh spinner Mehidy Hasan Miraz took his wicket in the second innings. All eyes are on the batter to bounce back in the second Test in Kanpur but he suffered a major setback at the nets ahead of the game. According to Indian Express, he faced 15 deliveries against fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah in the nets and he was ‘out’ four times. The fourth ball from Bumrah crashed into his pads and Bumrah shouted “saamne laga hai (You are plumb)” – a statement that Kohli acknowledged.
Two balls later, Kohli ended up getting an outside edge while chasing a ball outside his off-stump and he was foxed twice in a row as the fast bowler shifted his line to the middle and leg stumps.
“Aakhiri wala toh short leg ka catch tha (The short leg could have catched the last one),” Bumrah said.
Kohli moved to the other net where the spin trio Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel were bowling but his struggles did not end.
Kohli tried to take Jadeja on but while attempting to play an inside-out shot, the star batter missed the ball completely three times. The report further claimed that this left Kohli ‘agitated’.
However, things got worse as he was clean bowled by Axar whose delivery completely breached his defence. That was the last ball Kohli faced in the nets as he made way for Shubman Gill.
Meanwhile, former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar said that star batters Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli not featuring in the recently-concluded Duleep Trophy was not good for Indian cricket and for themselves.
The Duleep Trophy concluded with India A lifting the title. Various Indian international stars like Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, etc played in the tournament. However, Rohit and Virat did not feature in the tournament.
When India played Bangladesh in the first Test at Chennai, which marked Rohit’s first Test in five months and Virat’s first in eight months, the ring rust in both players was evident as they failed to muster big scores in the match. The Hitman scored five and six in both innings and Virat made poor scores of six and 17 across his both innings.
(With ANI inputs)
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