'Can't believe a player of Virat Kohli's class…': Mark Waugh's startling reaction to former India captain's dismissal

Virat Kohli has now gone 1195 days and 41 innings without a Test century. His last ton came against Bangladesh in a pink ball Test in Kolkata in November 2019. Since then, he averages 25.70 in red-ball cricket and has a highest score of only 79. Such has been his prolonged dry patch in this format that his average which was close to 55 till November 2019, has now plummeted to 48.12. Such a sharp drop is uncharacteristic, unprecedented and unexpected for someone of Kohli's stature. But there is something that these numbers don't capture. They don't tell you how comfortable Kohli has looked during most of his short stays in the middle for the last three years. They don't tell you how it has taken only one mistake, sometimes a debatable umpiring call or an absolute peach of a delivery to end his innings.

It is easy to say Kohli has been out of form just by looking at his numbers in the last few years but it would be mighty difficult to find technical faults in his batting. Yes, he still tends to poke at deliveries well outside the off stump and appears to be susceptible to finger spinners but there really hasn't been much wrong with Kohli's batting that can truly justify his lack of a big score for such a long period of time.

He once again looked good on a difficult pitch in Indore in India's second innings but was once again dismissed for 12. All it took was just one mistake against Matthew Kuhnemann. He perhaps should have played the ball straighter rather than aiming to hit it square of the wicket on the on-side.

“I cannot believe a player of his class has gone that long without a hundred,” former Australia batter Mark Waugh said on Fox Cricket.

“He’s been in good touch recently, he’s batted well in one-day cricket. I know it’s not Test match cricket, but the signs have been there in his last three innings in Test cricket that he’s actually playing pretty well.

“He’s middling the ball, he’s watching the ball well, and his defence is strong. He’s just making the odd error and it’s proving costly for him. He hasn’t had a lot of luck. He makes one mistake and he’s out.

“He’s a world-class player and I feel like a hundred is just around the corner for him. He’s feeling the pressure, no doubt about it … I feel like he is a little bit tense when he goes out there in the middle.”

Waugh continued: “He actually does play with quite hard hands, he likes to feel bat on ball. That dismissal in the first innings he just played that too square, if he played that to mid on he would have been okay, but he played it around his front pad.

“He does tend to plant his front foot, which technically is not a great thing to do in India. We have seen him play back in the crease in a couple of innings, which is quite well-suited to slower pitches. There’s no obvious weakness, but he seems to make one mistake and he’s gone.”

“Virat Kohli was outstanding in that first innings, he looked in control,” former Australian wicketkeeper Brad Haddin said on Fox Cricket. Then there was one mistake, he played around his front pad. It’s a bit of luck on this surface to bat for long periods of time.”