Virat Kohli was stunned by a delivery bowled by Mitchell Santner. He was clean bowled by the left-arm spinner at the score of just 8 off 10. Coming fresh off a century against Sri Lanka, Kohli was high on confidence, but his glaring weakness against spin in the last three years came back to haunt him in the 1st ODI against New Zealand.
“He’s played inside the line, therefore allowing the ball to turn just that little bit to go past the outside edge. He has played back to a ball that he should have played forward to. It wasn’t a short ball. It just turned a little bit and it went past his outside edge of a batter who is in tremendous form,” reacted Sunil Gavaskar.
Kohli has been struck out by a left-arm spinner for the fifth time in ODIs since 2021. His lack of trust in his defence against the left-arm spin has often put him on the backfoot and left him stunned several times. Many cricketing experts have also called out the weakness of Kohli against off-spin.
Mitchell Santner has dismissed Kohli for the second time in ODIs. Kohli’s strike rate against Santner is just 71 in 11 games. This is his worst strike rate against a spinner in the 50-over game. Right now, Kohli is averaging only 18 since 2021 against the left-arm spin.
Here’s how Twitter is reacting to Kohli’s dismissal:
Bowled! Santner beats Kohli to silence the stadium #INDvNZ pic.twitter.com/T9rB2o1p0P
— Ritwik Ghosh (@gritwik98) January 18, 2023
Lol .talk about Kohli..bashed minnows but got out to a very good spinner like Santner.
— Bicky (@ucntcme90) January 18, 2023
If Santner can cause grief to Kohli, Lyon must be licking his lips though both are different bowlers but still.
— Ramya Rajgopal (@RamyaRajgopal2) January 18, 2023
He does. I mean that ball against Santner he just had to come forward and defend with the front foot, covering the off stump.
— Kam 🏎 (@KP07_) January 18, 2023
He has a checked extra cover drive he uses a lot, but not the pure cover drive. He is careful as it was getting him lots of outside edges