Former Australian skipper Allan Border has warned the Aussies regarding Virat Kohli’s form. Border said he doesn’t want a confident Kohli for the rest of the Border-Gavaskar series. The former Indian captain managed only 93 runs in three Test matches against New Zealand however he was able to get back into form in the opening Test against Australia at Perth, which India won comprehensively by 295 runs.
Kohli scored an unbeaten knock of 100 runs in the second innings after he was dismissed for only five runs in the first essay. The talisman scored his 31st Test century and this was his seventh Test hundred in the Australian conditions.
Kohli walked into bat when India were going strongly at 275-2 but Border was not pleased with Pat Cummins’ captaincy as the Australian skipper kept a spread field for the right-hander.
“I was really disappointed in the way we let Kohli roll on to a hundred without much resistance,” Border told SEN radio on Friday morning. “We don’t want this guy full of confidence for the rest of the series.”
On the other hand, former Australian opener Matthew Hayden also concurred with Allan Border and feels Cummins gave easy singles to Kohli in the early phase of his innings.
“They missed a few tricks with Virat Kohli in the early part of his innings. Nathan Lyon had mid-on back, one on the off-side catching and a mid-wicket. I felt like it was so easy for him to get off strike,” Hayden had told Channel 7 after India’s win.
“You can’t cut a sucker an even break when a bloke is under pressure as he was. The field we actually finished with – two slips, no point, a man straight – it offered up the outside edge of his bat as well. He found it a little more frustrating. When he got the bit between the teeth, it was too late.
The second Test match between Australia and India, which will be a pink-ball game, will be played at Adelaide Oval from December 6 onwards.