Aakash Chopra gave his take on Virat Kohli’s four-ball stay at the crease during the first ODI at Ahmedabad on ESPNcricinfo‘s Match Day show.
The former India skipper’s frantic four-ball innings that yielded eight runs came to an end after a wild hook off the bowling of Alzarri Joseph. His innings drew a number of reactions including one from Chopra who had written on Twitter, “What was that???”
The former India opener went on to discuss Kohli’s innings in detail, stating that he was surprised at this knock.
On Match Day, Chopra said: “Surprised. Very, very surprised. He came out as if he was in a hurry. First ball he tried something, second ball he tried something else. And these are all extravagant shots that you don’t associate Kohli with, a wicket has just fallen…I am sure he has been watching the game and he does he understands chases and pitches much better than anybody else, therefore the number of runs he has scored.”
Chopra, who played 10 Tests for India in the early 2000s, expressed his surprise at Kohli’s approach at the crease.
“He would’ve understood that the ball is not coming to the bat that nicely, Ishan Kishan is struggling…even though the bounce was still, you couldn’t trust it. Some balls were staying really low and hitting just the bottom of the bat. So that four-ball innings was a very, very surprising innings. It perhaps tells you that he’s not exactly in the right frame of mind because technically you can’t fault a four-ball innings.”
While Kohli is currently in the midst of a now more than a two-year period without an international hundred, his ODI form in recent times has been good. Since his most recent ODI hundred in August 2019, Kohli has passed fifty 10 times in 19 games.
“If you talk about the aptitude and calibre of the guy there’s no question. So, what exactly is going wrong? We saw in South Africa, he looked a different batter. He scored runs, but while watching him play I wasn’t 100 per cent convinced that this is the Virat Kohli at his very best. He didn’t look like that. He did score runs but they weren’t the prettiest of scores, which can happen and is absolutely fine. But this four-ball innings has once again reflected that he is still not mentally completely there with the comfort of his game.”
