Former India National Cricket Team spinner Harbhajan Singh has revealed that the batting superstar Virat Kohli has made a massive change in his batting ahead of the third Test against the Australia National Cricket Team.
Harbhajan Singh stated that Virat Kohli is working on his back foot game to crush the Australian bowlers in the third Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 match in Brisbane.
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Virat Kohli hit a century in Perth Test
The 36-year-old India batter has not looked at his best in Test cricket for a very long time. Kohli’s average has fallen below 50 (47.72), and at the moment, he is way behind his Fab-4 competitors.
After struggling throughout the home Test series, Virat Kohli started off the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 with a score of 5 in the Perth Test. However, he bounced back strongly in the second innings of the same match and blasted an epic century when conditions got easier to bat on.
It felt like Kohli was truly back to his best, but that wasn’t the case. In the next Test match in Adelaide, which was a pink-ball game, Kohli once again bagged low scores.
He endured a double failure and came up with the scores of 7 & 11. Kohli’s outside off-stump weakness was once again exposed and his poor performance meant that the Indian team struggled to put up a huge score on the board.
You need to have a good backfoot game. That’s what he was practising – Harbhajan Singh
India players are practicing in Adelaide nets after the pink-ball Test finished early. The likes of Rohit, Kohli, Rahul, Pant, and Jaiswal have been sweating it out in the nets and Harbhajan Singh has revealed the change that Virat Kohli is trying to make.
Harbhajan Singh said that Kohli is a front-foot player, but he is aware of the fact that the track in Brisbane will be bouncy, hence, he is working on his back-foot game.
“Yes, whatever little I have seen him batting in the nets today. I have played a lot of cricket with him. He is a front-foot player. Knowing the bounce on Indian soil, you have to be on your front foot. The people who have played here, the likes of Ricky Ponting, Steve Waugh, Langer, Hayden.
“They were good back foot players, because of the bounce. It is the kind of bounce you get in Australia, you have to be good player of bounce. You need to have a good backfoot game. That’s what he was practising,” Harbhajan told Star Sports.
He was playing a lot of deliveries on the backfoot – Harbhajan Singh
Harbhajan Singh further said that Kohli tried to make his back-foot game very sharp in the nets to make himself fully prepared for the third Test match. The legendary spinner is also optimistic that Kohli will be scoring big in the Brisbane Test.
“Specifically I have noticed today. He was playing a lot of deliveries on the backfoot. He was going forward for the fuller ball but those balls which were slightly shorter than the length of full ball, he was either leaving or trying to play them.
“The ball from the back foot, he knows that Gabba will be a different wicket where he will get to face a lot of bounce and pace and that back foot game needs to be included in his game. Good to see him working on the game. I am sure, knowing Virat Kohli, we have seen him making a comeback after every setback,” he added.