Virat Kohli was clean bowled by a low full toss in Pune. That too while going to a big shot. One doesn’t even remember if Kohli’s gotten dismissed in a similar fashion in his Test career ever before. But how did Mitchell Santner get him? Well, it turns out Shubman Gill played a bigger role than Santner in sending Kohli back to the hut.
Why did Virat Kohli change his stance?
You see, Santner had gotten Gill trapped in front of the wicket in the 22nd over with a straighter one. Kohli had been the left-arm spinner troubling Gill from the sidelines, and when he reached the middle, Kohli decided he should change his stance to tackle Santner.
Kohli pushed his left leg outside to tackle the ball. This change was made keeping Santner and Ajaz Patel in mind so that the left-arm spinners don’t get him LBW. Anil Kumble, legendary leg spinner, talked about how that’s not a shot that got him dismissed, but he felt the choice was right despite him going out.
“I was very surprised. He doesn’t look to play that shot at all usually. He opened his stance to tackle Santer after seeing Shubman Gill get out. I think the choice was right,” Kumble said on JioCinema.
Did Kohli’s bat get stuck?
However, the Indian veteran also pointed out that he’d premeditated to play the shot on the leg side due to the packed off-side. The full toss threw him off. “But he’d already decided to play a shot on the leg side, and then the full toss threw him off. His bat also got stuck in the pitch when he was going for the shot, and it broke his flow,” the former Indian coach added.
A spinner at heart despite retiring, Kumble didn’t fail to credit Mitchell Santner for his brave bowling. “But credit to Santner as well. He was willing to give air to the ball,” he concluded.
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