Former captain Virat Kohli was dismissed after scoring just four runs in the first ODI against the Kangaroo team in Mumbai after playing a brilliant century inning during the fourth Test match against Australia in Ahmedabad. During the match played at Wankhede, Kohli got out LBW on the inswing ball of Australian fast bowler Mitchell Starc.
Apart from Kohli, the rest of the Indian top-order batters flopped during the first ODI. After which, chasing the target of 189 runs, Team India lost its five wickets for just 83 runs. However, based on KL Rahul’s brilliant half-century innings and his partnership with Ravindra Jadeja, Team India won by five wickets.
Despite the victory of Team India, Kohli’s wicket was the main topic of discussion after the match. Former Pakistani cricketer Danish Kaneria also spoke against Starc on Kohli’s dismissal. The former spinner said that the inswing ball is Kohli’s weakness.
Kaneria warned the former India captain that he could trouble him in the World Test Championship (WTC) final, where India would again face Australia.
Danish Kaneria on Virat Kohli
Former cricketer Kaneria said in a video shared on his YouTube channel Virat Kohli is not comfortable against left-arm fast bowlers when the ball comes back. He must practice facing Mitchell Starc in the World Test Championship final. Team management should bring left-arm fast bowlers like T Natarajan as net bowlers.
Kaneria also talked about the poor management of batsman KL Rahul. The wicketkeeper-batsman played a match-winning inning of 75 runs in the first ODI. Rahul first stabilized the innings with stand-in captain Hardik Pandya and then closed the match with Ravindra Jadeja, who returned unbeaten on 45 off 69 balls.
Sharing his thoughts on Rahul, the former spinner said, “KL Rahul has pulled himself together after a massive setback. He was dropped from the Test team and knows he must perform now and be very smart. It is never right to single someone out. You need to fix the problems.”
He said, “He looked very calm today, and the Australian bowlers could not hit his pads because he was going behind the ball line.”
