Sunil Gavaskar believes Virat Kohli‘s dismissal in the second One-Day International against Australia was due to overconfidence. On Sunday, March 19, Kohli top-scored with a 35-ball 31 as the Men in Blue were bowled out for 117 after being asked to bat first in Visakhapatnam.
Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head of Australia then chased down the target in just 11 overs staying unbeaten, helping their team tie the three-match series. Gavaskar was asked about Virat Kohli’s dismissal during a discussion on Star Sports, as he was looking good in the middle before that. “It could be a lapse in concentration and it could be a little overconfidence as well because Nathan Ellis came as the fifth (actually fourth) bowler,” he said.
The former Indian captain believes Virat may have taken it easy against Nathan Ellis after successfully navigating Mitchell Starc. “When you have faced the main bowlers successfully and don’t get out to them, your confidence also increases slightly. You will also have to say that if the ball had hit the outside part of his pad, he would have been not out, but because it hit him on the inside part of the pad, he was out,” Gavaskar added.
He had probably made up his mind beforehand: Sanjay Bangar
In the meantime, Sanjay Bangar believes that Virat Kohli’s dismissal was because of his premeditated shot. “I feel he premeditated a little. These days, because Test cricket, ODIs and T20Is are happening in parallel, the batters get into the habit of premeditating a lot. It comes inherently. I feel he was looking for a shorter length on that delivery. He was not expecting a full delivery,” he explained.
Bangalore‘s head coach went on to say that the franchise’s former captain was probably expecting a shorter delivery. Bangar added that Kohli may have planned ahead of time to tuck the ball away for a single.
“He had probably made up his mind beforehand itself that it would be short and he would tap it towards the leg side and take a run and he made a mistake in that. So it is better if you don’t premeditate in such conditions. A neutral mindset is the best mindset,” he said.
