'That is hindering a lot of his batting' - Sanjay Manjrekar points reason behind Virat Kohli's struggle against outside off-stump deliveries

India’s Test skipper Virat Kohli hasn’t looked at his absolute best in international cricket lately. In the centurion Test, he looked in fine touch with the willow but lost his wicket while chasing a delivery outside off stump. Whereas in the second innings as well he walked back to the pavilion in a similar manner.

His shot selection thus yet again came into the limelight wherein the cricketing fraternity and on-lookers were disappointed by it. However former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar reckoned that Kohli is going through a tough patch in his career and with the cover drive being one of his main shots he would be confused over leaving the balls outside the off-stump.

“Clearly, a guy who is going through an inevitable bad patch. You start losing confidence and then all got confused. I’m sure there is a lot of advice coming in his direction on leaving the balls outside the off-stump. But then, he might be thinking if he starts leaving those balls, where do I get those runs? Because the cover drive is one of his main shots,” said Manjrekar on ESPNCricinfo.

Wouldn’t advise Virat Kohli to leave balls outside off-stump: Sanjay Manjrekar 

Manjrekar further shed light on the Indian Test skipper’s struggle while facing those deliveries and also suggested him a potential solution for the same. According to him, Kohli has been lunging forward in recent times and that is making things more challenging for him.

“Something that I noticed for a year and a half, is the technique that Virat Kohli has started to trust, which is about lunging forward and getting onto that front foot no matter what. And that is hindering a lot of his batting. If you look at the strike rate in the last year or so, against New Zealand in WTC to the first innings in South Africa, 30-40. It is all to do because he is only playing on the front foot.

I wouldn’t advise him to leave balls outside off-stump. Maybe just the one thing he can do is start getting on the backfoot a little and not be a batter who is on the front foot no matter what. It makes the bowler’s job a lot easier. If he starts using the crease, he will find that he will get a lot of loose balls. Otherwise, tall fast bowlers on these pitches just keep hitting the deck, and those turn out to be great balls for Virat Kohli because he uses that front foot,” Manjrekar said.