BRISBANE: The sun was out in its full glory and it was a very hot morning in Brisbane before Day 4 got underway. The forecast apps had maintained consensus on rain but the morning didn’t suggest that the day would be headed in that direction. As the handful of spectators made their way to The Gabba, there was a lot of noise coming from the nets area. Few Indian training jerseys were spotted from the main junction but the moment one got closer, the cast of the session was revealed.
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With the training tank top on, Virat Kohli was in the nets and faced a lot of deliveries from Harshit Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Washington Sundar and the throwdown specialists. The India batter kept switching nets for small hits against different attacks as he looked to iron out the flaws which have been leading to his downfalls in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
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In the first innings at Gabba, the right-hander was out nicking at a delivery well outside the off-stump and chatter of his vulnerabilities in that channel only grew louder. So, here he was, on the morning of the fourth day, sweating out as few spectators observed proceedings from a higher elevation and some were stationed right behind the net. Bowling coach Morne Morkel and assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate were also present to assist Kohli, who also had Devdutt Padikkal batting in the adjacent net.
There were drives, plenty of them, during the session and the former captain was comfortably shouldering arms to deliveries on length. Every time he would miscue the drive or shot, Kohli would speak to the throwdown specialist or the bowler and the interactions continued throughout his session.
Virat Kohli during the net session.
It will be safe to say that he looked assured and solid during that hit before the morning session got underway but the touch of the nets hasn’t translated into match form during his recent outings. He scored a hundred in the second innings of the Perth Test but has been dismissed in single digits in three out of the four other innings in the series.
There is still a lot of cricket left in the series and India’s prolific batter would hope he gets his act right for the next two fixtures in Melbourne and Sydney. And even in the second innings in Brisbane, if weather permits.
