'How Much He Misread The Length': Sanjay Manjrekar Still In Disbelief Over Virat Kohli's Bizarre Dismissal (Photo credit: BCCI)
Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has said that what worries him over the much-discussed Virat Kohli dismissal is how much the star batter misread the length of the delivery from Mitchell Santner. Kohli scored just one run before he was dismissed off a full toss, which could have been hit for a boundary, but Kohli opted to sweep it, resulting in his wicket.
The biggest shock for India in the day arrived in the 24th over when Kohli missed a juicy full toss from Santner to be cleaned up for a nine-ball one.
Kohli couldn't make any connection with the ball, absolutely misreading its length and the ball went on to crash into his stumps, leaving him in disarray.
"The worrying thing for me was how much he misread the length. That is what worries me because the perception of length seems to be his problem when he's playing seamers as well. I've talked a million times about how he wants to get forward to a ball that is not necessarily full," Manjrekar said while speaking on ESPNCricinfo.
"So, it's how he's reacting to the length. But against spin, he's been quite good. This time he completely misread the length of the ball and the ball almost pitched under his bat as he went for the sweep shot. How he missed it was the bigger issue for me than the shot selection," Manjrekar added.
Kohli's last five Test innings read 47, 29*, 0, 70 and 1, a very inconsistent run that is uncharacteristic of him. After the 70-run knock in the first Test in Bengaluru, it was expected that he would turn up at his best in Pune but that didn't happen.
Kohli's last Test century had come against the Windies in July last year and the wait has continued since then, as concerns over his form rise again.
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