Former Indian fast bowler Zaheer Khan expressed surprise after Virat Kohli was dismissed for a consecutive duck in the second ODI against Australia at the Adelaide Oval on Thursday. After managing an eight-ball duck at Optus Stadium, Perth, Kohli once again failed to trouble the scorers at Adelaide as he was dismissed for a blob.
Kohli was plumbed in front by Xavier Bartlett for a four-ball duck. The right-arm seamer was able to get the ball back into the right-hander and Kohli could not make any connection.
Zaheer Khan said on Cricbuzz, “Sometimes you go through these kind of phases. Two games, two ducks, no one will be able to believe that a player of Virat’s calibre has had two failures in succession. But it stops there. It’s something I would not look too much into. It’s not like they ( RoKo) are on trial. And that’s the way it should be as these two have achieved enough. He will not be happy with the last two games but it’s just about brushing this aside and starting things afresh.”
On the other hand, the former Indian seamer praised Rohit Sharma for adapting to difficult situation. Rohit struggled to get going initially as there was a lot of help for the Australian bowlers but the Indian opener played a gutsy knock of 73 runs off 97 balls.
“Today’s innings was a classic example of adapting to the situation and the team’s needs. Your natural instinct is to look to take the game on, especially in the first powerplay. But today it wasn’t that kind of day. It wasn’t that he wasn’t trying but he understood that the pitch had enough to offer for the bowlers,” said Zaheer (via the aforementioned source).
“He saw that phase through and it looked like he was changing gears as he moved along. The shot was on but it was just one of those days. Even Mitchell Starc’s reaction suggested that he didn’t deserve that wicket with that delivery.”
India posted 264-9 in their 50 overs after they were put into bat.
