In his pomp, Virat Kohli’s cover-drives would scorch the turf. On view would be footwork, timing and placement.
Now Kohli is feeling for deliveries around off. His footwork appears to have deserted him.
When self-belief vanishes, so does the authority with the willow. And you discover ways of getting out. Kohli’s last four innings in the Tata-IPL for Royal Challengers Bangalore have been 1, 12, 0, 0, the zeros being golden ducks.
Poor run
And he has not scored a half-century in his last 11 innings across formats. The runs are drying out.
On Saturday, on a seaming Brabourne surface, Sunrisers’ nippy left-armer Marco Jansen of two-way movement and bounce found Kohli out as the batter played with hard hands and little footwork.
Kohli needs to get his body balance and alignment right. For that to happen, he has to rediscover his footwork. Once that takes place he will play shots with a still head, and would not be falling away. It’s a chain of events.
The struggling Kohli has to re-look his stance. Is he balanced and relaxed as he faces the ball? The distribution of body weight is critical so is the back swing which needs to be straighter. Kohli needs to travel to his basics and make his defence solid. Once that happens, his feet will move again and the strokes will flow.
