ENG vs IND 2021: Play closer to your body – Sunil Gavaskar gives advice to Virat Kohli

Indian great Sunil Gavaskar has advised Virat Kohli to play closer to body and feels it is fine if he misses the ball while trying to play the line.

However, the Little Master has noticed that Kohli is reaching out to balls, which are way outside the off-stump, which is leading to his downfall.

Kohli has been seen wanting to play at the balls, which he could have left easily. Furthermore, the Indian captain has been a bit impatient in his approach especially in the beginning of his innings.

Kohli was once again dismissed while trying to play the ball, which was on the fifth stump line and he could have left that one easily.

In fact, Kohli had got off to a fine start as he was batting on 55 runs but once again could not go on to make a big score.

“See how far from the body the bat is, that’s what’s getting him into trouble. He (Virat Kohli) is reaching out. So it’s hard hands stuff that is getting into trouble.

I don’t think standing outside the crease is a worry. If you play closer to your body, you play and miss it. There is no harm in playing and missing it,” Sunil Gavaskar told Sony Sports.

The Little Master urged Kohli to keep things simple and don’t make too many changes to his batting stance as he has found great success while batting outside the crease.

“I think it’s the shot selection. You have got to keep it simple. He has got 8000 runs, probably the last 6,500 runs he has got standing outside the crease. So I don’t think he needs to make too many changes. I think it’s just the shot selection,” he added.

Gavaskar feels that the shot selection matters a lot in tough conditions like England. The former Indian skipper wanted to see Kohli and Pujara show more resistance and leave the balls which were on the fifth stump line.

“At the moment, we’re talking about intent. There is ‘intent’ question against Pujara. Here it seems the intent is to get runs. It means there are deliveries you’re playing when you should be leaving those. So it’s basically again a question of shot selection.”

“You don’t have to play at those deliveries. If you leave those deliveries, it’s not going to matter. You still had a day to go and you were 140 runs behind the England team.

If you have a look, these are deliveries on the 4th stump, there are no complaints. But there are deliveries at the 5th, 6th stump. These are deliveries he should not be playing,” concluded Sunil Gavaskar.

Pujara and Kohli added 99 runs for the third wicket partnership but the former was dismissed when he was trying to leave the ball against Ollie Robinson whereas Kohli was dismissed while trying to defend a ball which on the fifth stump line but he could only manage an outside edge.