In 2004, Sachin Tendulkar shelved the cover drive on his way to a famous unbeaten double century in Sydney. Virat Kohli may have to follow suit if he is to bow out of Test cricket on his own terms.
At a glance, Kohli, 36, has the numbers of a player who is gone, but this is not one of the cases where if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.
Virat Kohli departs the MCG on Monday, caught in the cordon again.Credit: AP
Unlike Rohit Sharma, whose game looks completely off, Kohli’s issue is a question of technique and temperament. Kohli is still in pristine physical condition. But while his eyes and reflexes may not be as sharp as they once were, it’s a lack of discipline that is hurting him most.
Kohli’s career has been built on control, but he is now having trouble suppressing his natural urges, whether it’s ignoring hecklers in the crowd, picking blues with a teenaged debutant or, most obviously, balls outside off stump.
All six of Kohli’s dismissals this series have come to catches behind the wicket. His unbeaten ton in the second innings in Perth, when India were already in an unassailable position when he batted, was as close to a junk-time Test century as you can get.
His 100 not out is an outlier in a campaign that has also produced scores of 5, 7, 11, 3, 36 and 5. His series average of 27.83 is in keeping with the 31.32 he has averaged in 38 games since the start of 2020. If he was not Virat Kohli, he’d have been dropped a long time ago.
The Australians would never say this publicly out of respect for Kohli, and probably fear of Mother Cricket, but they know they have Kohli’s measure.
Bowl the ball in the fourth and fifth stump channel outside off, perhaps even wider, and wait for the nick to come.
“Well that’s the line I’ve been talking about the whole series. Get it wide and get it full. That’s the sixth time Mitch Starc’s gotten Virat Kohli in Test cricket. The trap was set. The bait was thrown out there and the big fish has fallen for it,” former Australia captain Ricky Ponting said on Seven.
With the exception of his century in Perth, when the fizz had gone from the game, the closest Kohli has come to resisting temptation came on the second day of this Test when he made the Australians bowl at him.
By ignoring balls outside off stump, he dragged Australia’s lines closer to his pads and scored through the leg side. The drives he played were aimed as close to the bowler as he could instead of the gaping hole, greater than the length of a centre square in the MCG’s winter configuration, between mid-off and gully. His extravagant drive at Mitchell Starc from the final ball before lunch on Monday was directed through cover.
Tendulkar, India’s last batting demi-god, provided the template for Kohli. Twenty-one years ago in Sydney, unhappy with being caught behind the wicket earlier in the series, Tendulkar did not hit a boundary through cover in his 241 not out.
The plan was devised after a conversation with his brother, who told him his weakness was a matter of shot selection rather than technique.
“I need discipline to be in the driving seat,” Tendulkar said in an interview published on his Facebook page in 2021. “My natural instincts, they have to be sitting in the passenger’s seat.
“I suddenly realised all the bowlers are bowling in that corridor on the sixth stump, not even fourth stump. If you are going to keep bowling away from me and frustrate me, I’m going to take on this challenge and frustrate you. It’s one versus 11, let’s see who loses patience first. I’m not going to play a single cover drive.”
Steve Waugh did it with the hook shot, but warehousing a stroke that has produced so many runs for a batter requires the discipline of a monk. The confidence and self-belief that has driven Kohli through his career will tell him he still can play that shot well. The habits of a lifetime also die hard.
“He’s done it so much over the years, its become muscle memory for him – cover drive, cover drive, cover drive,” former Australia opener Simon Katich said on SEN.
This should not be unfamiliar territory for Kohli. On his miserable tour of England in 2014 when he was tormented by James Anderson, Kohli was caught by the wicketkeeper or in the cordon in seven of his 10 innings. Four years later, he averaged nearly 60. The difference?
“He left it a lot better and he was a lot more patient,” Anderson told the Test Match Special podcast in 2020. “He waited for you to bowl at him, and then he’s very strong off his legs so he could score freely.”
Kohli knows what to do, it’s a matter of whether still can.
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