‘Laut aao Ajinkya Rahane, Kohli ko nikalo’ – Fans miss Ajinkya Rahane as Virat Kohli drops catches at slips

The first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy between India and Australia is being played in Nagpur. Australia is batting in the second innings on Day 3. After dropping the catch of Steve Smith in the first innings, Virat Kohli once again dropped a seemingly straightforward catch. This time, Kohli gave new life to dangerous batter David Warner.

Ravichandran Ashwin came to bowl the sixth over in the second innings for Team India. He trapped Warner on the fourth ball of this over. The ball took an edge and went straight to Kohli standing in the slips, he opened his hands and tried to catch the ball which came at a perfect height but the ball hit his palms and fluffed the catch.

Warner breathed a sigh of relief after getting dropped by Kohli as he was batting on only 1 run, while bowler Ashwin looked disappointed. Kohli also missed a catch in the first innings but that was quite tough. Although he caught the catch of Usman Khawaja in the second over of the 2nd innings.

Just a little too anxious to complete the catch: Sunil Gavaskar

Describing Virat Kohli’s failure to take Warner’s catch at the slip, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar in the commentary box said Kohli looked anxious to complete the catch. “Just a little too anxious to complete the catch. It came at a good height. And you can see that he (Kohli) was looking to complete the catch a little too soon. A little too anxious to close his palms on the ball. Instead of having soft hands, it became hard hands,” Gavaskar said.

Former Australian cricketer Mark Waugh, one of the finest slip fielders discussed the technical issues with Kohli as a slip fielder on Day 2, saying he was not anticipating catches and his feet were too wide apart.

“I think his feet are two wide apart. His weight is often is on the back of heels rather than on his feet. Sometimes, he looks like he is not expecting the ball. He has got to be expecting the ball every single delivery,” Waugh had said.

Here’s how the fans reacted: