VVS Laxman Highlights Main Reason Behind Virat Kohli's Recent Failures

Former Indian batsman VVS Laxman has reflected upon the key reason as to how Virat’s old habits have become the reason behind his poor show in New Zealand. Kohli had one of the worst rough patches of his career so far during ongoing India’s tour of New Zealand.

Precisely, he is not having a good time with the bat and the century master has been relatively quiet for a long time now.

Kohli had the worst series as a captain with the bat in the recently-concluded India-New Zealand ODI series as he could score only 75 runs in the three games he played. This was by far his poorest performance in a bilateral ODI series since his captaincy debut in the format.

The right-handed batsman Kohli had returned to form is now long-awaited and spectators hoped for his comeback in the Test series.

However, he was cheaply dismissed in all the four innings that he played in two Test matches.

On Sunday, he walked out to bat for the final time during the tour and was cheaply dismissed by Colin de Grandhomme as the latter trapped him plumb in front of wickets.

VVS Laxman Discusses The Key Factor Behind Kohli’s Recent Dismissals

“The problem for Virat Kohli is not the LBW dismissal, but the way the bat is coming down. This was the way he was getting out in England against the moving ball, especially against James Anderson. In this series we have seen the bat coming down at an angle, that is why there is always going to be a gap between bat and ball. He will not have any time to meet the ball once there is movement,” Laxman said after the day’s play got over in the post-match show on Star Sports.

“In this series, in these two innings, the old habit of Kohli had come back to haunt him,” he further added.

In his more than an 11-year-old international career, there have been only two other phases where Kohli has failed to score a hundred in more than 19 innings.

The 1st bad phase of Kohli’s career spanned from February to September 2011 when he failed to hit a hundred in 24 consecutive innings.

During this period, Kohli’s overall batting average dipped sharply from 48 before the 2011 World Cup to 39 in a space of seven months.

In 2014, Kohli endured another worst period with the bat in international cricket when he failed to score a century for 25 successive innings from February to October.

And, this included the horror England tour where he could score only 134 runs in five Tests.

Also Read: New Zealand vs India 2020: Virat Kohli Suffers Worst-Ever International Outing Across Formats