Virat Kohli has announced his retirement from Test cricket but he continues to dominate the chat among ex-cricketers, who are part of the commentary panel for the India vs England Test series. The first match out of the five got underway on Friday at Headingley, Leeds and while many have already expressed their sentiments about the talismanic batter, the one from former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar was rather unexpected.
Although Manjrekar didn't take his name but social media was quick to connect the dots, suggesting that the reference was to none other than Kohli. The moment took place between the 21st over after England skipper Ben Stokes won the toss and invited India to bat. Then India were batting at 77 for the loss of no wickets with KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal leading the charge.
Manjrekar observed that many would see the track as batting friendly but one shouldn't dismiss the discipline shown by the Indian openers, who treated the ball as per their merit.
"Many would see this session and would think the pitch is placid. The seam bowlers haven't looked potent, one important reason it is seeing that way is these two have batted well. Potentially wicket-taking, outside the off-stump full and they have been left alone. Jaiswal has done that, anything that has pitched right up into the stump is driven anything that has pitched wide is not disturbed," he noted.
Soon after a ball was pitched almost on the sixth stump line by Brydon Carse with Rahul on strike. The batter left the ball undisturbed as it was collected by the wicketkeeper. At that moment, Manjrekar highlighted: "There's another example of it. We know of a former batter that would have gone after it and got himself into trouble but not these two."
During the last tour of Australia, where India endured a crushing 1-3 loss in five-match series, Kohli was constantly troubled with deliveries pitched outside off stump. In fact eight out of the total nine times Kohli lost his wicket in the series, the batter was dismissed while poking a delivery pitched almost on the fifth and sixth stump line.
Meanwhile, coming back to the ongoing clash, Rahul and Jaiswal combined to stitch 91 runs for the opening wicket. The former was eventually dismissed by Brydon Carse on 42(78) as he failed to resist the temptation of launching a wild swing on a delivery pitched outside off. The ball took a thick edge and was caught by Joe Root positioned at the slip cordon.
Sai Sudharsan, making his debut, perished in the next over bowled by Stokes on a four-ball duck. He was caught-behind by Jamie Smith.
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