The Gabba in Brisbane, venue of the third Test in the Border Gavaskar Trophy, is expected to test the Indian batters with the bounce in its track; and India’s batting icon Virat Kohli is preparing for the challenge accordingly.
India, who are still in Adelaide after losing the pink-ball Test inside three days, have been putting in the hard yards in the nets before flying out to Brisbane for the next match in the five-Test series that is locked at 1-1.
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Observing Kohli spending long hours in the nets, former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh noticed a concerted effort by the former India captain to fine-tune his technique against extra bounce.
“I have played a lot of cricket with him (Kohli). He is a front-foot player…People who have played here (in Brisbane), the likes of Ricky Ponting, Steve Waugh, Justin Langer, Matthew Hayden, they were good back foot players, because of the bounce. It is the kind of bounce you get in Australia…You need to have a good back-foot game. That’s what he was practising,” Harbhajan, who played 103 Tests in his prolific career, analysed.
Kohli returned to form with an unbeaten century (100*) in the first Test at Perth, which India won by 295 runs. But he had a poor outing in Adelaide with knocks of 7 and 11 in the two innings. Australia won the match by 10 wickets to level the series.
“Specifically I have noticed today (that) he was playing a lot of deliveries on the back foot. He was going forward for the fuller ball but those balls which were slightly shorter, he was either leaving or trying to play them,” said Harbhjan.
“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… Good to see him working on his game….Knowing Virat Kohli, we have seen him making a comeback after every setback,” he concluded.