Former Australian skipper Michael Clarke explained that extra Perth bounce undid Virat Kohli in the opening ODI against Australia at the Optus Stadium on Sunday. After playing seven dot balls on the bounce, Kohli went for an expensive cover drive against Mitchell Starc but was caught brilliantly by Cooper Connolly for a blob.

Kohli was playing professional cricket after a long break and could not get going. Clarke highlighted that if Kohli had been playing in the Indian conditions, that shot would have gone for a boundary but since the Perth pitch had extra bounce, the right-hander could not get the ball in the right spot of the bat.

Michael Clarke said on the Beyond23 Cricket podcast, “That muscle memory of just game after game, which he has done for 15 years, but then have six months off and play in very, very foreign conditions is hard. If his first game back was in India, I think he’s straight back into it. But because he’s in Australia, that shot he played, in India he cover drives that for four.”

“Here, it bounced and hit him a bit higher on the bat, he’s out in front of himself and gets caught at backward point. So, their top three, for them to get out like that, sort of sums up their play throughout the game. Their bowlers tried to get their lengths right and some mixups in the running, so they were just underdone.”

Clarke said Kohli would be disappointed with his shot but admitted it is not easy to hit the ground running after a long break.

“That’s Virat Kohli’s first duck in an ODI at Australia ever. So not the place to start in what looks like it’s going to be his last tour to Australia. He’ll be disappointed. He hasn’t played for a long time and even though he looks as fit as ever and might have been batting fine in the nets, playing games is just different,” said Clarke (via the aforementioned source).

The second ODI between India and Australia will be played at the Adelaide Oval on Thursday.