Gavaskar picks Kohli’s habit of hooking every ball; says it’s getting him out

The limelight remains on Virat Kohli as India started its ODI campaign against West Indies at the Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday (February 6) with an emphatic win.

Virat’s paltry score of just 8 in 4 balls invited the criticism of little master Sunil Gavaskar, who said the Delhi batter is getting predictable with his constant urge to hook the ball, a habit even the South Africa bowlers observed and used against him to get him out.

In the first ODI, West Indies bowler Alzarri Joseph bowled several short-pitch deliveries to Kohli, who hit the first two for fours, but another pull attempt failed when a top edge found the fielder in the deep.

Despite low score, the former captain reached an important milestone of 5,000 ODI runs at home pitches.

Gavaskar told Star Sports that bowlers are tempted to try the short delivery against Kohli because he has very clearly demonstrated his readiness to not to duck, instead go for the hook. He warned Kohli that he will get many more such short balls from the West Indies and should try not to go for everything that is pitched short of length.

Also read: Why is Virat Kohli struggling with the bat? Here is what Gavaskar has to say

“I thought that even the South Africans seemed to be looking to do in one-day cricket maybe not so much in Test cricket, to try and bounce Virat Kohli. Because he is one of those batsman who does not really duck. He loves to play the hook shot, which is one where you cannot really be in control,” Gavaskar said.

“In this instance he does not get it right. He picked the ball which bounced a little bit more and then he anticipated so it wasn’t quite of the middle of the bat. It went off the edge and the catch was taken. So I feel he should be prepared to face a little bit more in the remaining matches.”

Also read: Why is Virat Kohli struggling with the bat? Here is what Gavaskar has to say

On Rohit Sharma’s first game as captain, Gavaskar said the new captain made a perfect start. “This is the kind of perfect start he wanted. Even before that he tossed the coin in such a way that Pollard called it wrong. So you got to remember that right from the beginning he got it right. Therefore with a win like this, it is always a good start and he contributed to the win in terms of scoring with what is your speciality, that is batting,” Gavaskar added.

India play West Indies in the second match on February 9 and the final on February 11, both at Ahmedabad.