Kohli edges behind, again

On a morning where Australia’s quicks walked over India’s top order, Kohli was dismissed for a 12-ball five. He fell to Josh Hazlewood – for the fourth time in his career – undone by a delivery that climbed on him. He fended at it awkwardly, edging it to first slip.

On first impression, it was evident Kohli had not judged the length, pressing forward to a ball that was much shorter for it, before pushing himself back and fending the ball to the slip cordon. Replays showed that the previous ball – that Kohli had pushed forward at – rose to about a one-metre height at the stumps. The ball that took his wicket rose to about 1.5 metres.

Basically, Kohli went forward and across to a delivery that was best played on the back foot (or left, since the channel was well outside the off stump).

It’s interesting to note that Kohli was batting well outside his crease in a possible attempt to negate the extra bounce on offer at the WACA pitch. In comparison, opener KL Rahul, who batted for 74 deliveries, stayed well within his crease.

Kohli’s record in Australia is excellent, averaging 52.19 with six hundreds (only two players have more). However, he last played a Test here nearly five years ago, and has averaged 32.58 in the format since.

.@copes9, right before the wicket, going a long way to explaining what happened: "This is two game plans going head to head..."#AUSvIND https://t.co/cCPLjVbGnK pic.twitter.com/zPk4RwQVjJ

— 7Cricket (@7Cricket) November 22, 2024

The extraordinary stat behind Kohli's dismissal

Before the Perth dismissal, Trent Copeland, analysing for Channel 7, noted that it had been 2,037 deliveries since Kohli had been last dismissed lbw in Australia, and 1,578 balls since he had been bowled. The last bowler to get him leg-before was Ben Hilfenhaus in the 2012 Perth Test, while Mitchell Johnson bowled him in the 2014 Brisbane Test.

Since then, he has been caught out on 13 out of 14 occasions in Australia, with the only exception being a run out in the 2020 Adelaide Test.

Kohli’s last ten dismissals in Australia:

Known for his propensity to push at deliveries outside the off stump, Kohli has rarely been given anything on the body by Australia. On his last two tours, only six per cent of all seam deliveries bowled to him were hitting the stumps, while 94 per cent of them were missing the stumps.

Given the stat, Australia’s gameplan was clear: to target the channel outside Kohli’s off stump and also surprise him with bounce, addressing both his tendency to fish outside off, and to press on the front foot. With the delivery in Perth, Hazlewood achieved both. Perhaps, a younger Kohli would have been able to adjust at the last moment, but age does play a part in slower reflexes: by the time he attempted to withdraw his bat, the ball had already nicked it and gone behind.

As he walked back, for his third consecutive single-digit score, one wonders if the technical lapses have caught up with the great man.

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