Poor shot selection is the reason behind Virat Kohli’s low scores in England – Gavaskar

Sunil Gavaskar believes India captain Virat Kohli has struggled in England due to poor shot selection. The right-handed batsman has scored just one fifty in three Test matches so far and has been struggling for consistency.

During a recent discussion on Sony Sports Network, Gavaskar revealed what Virat should do come out of his patchy form.

“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,” he said.

“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 further said that Cheteshwar Pujara is facing similar issues in England.

“At the moment, we’re talking about intent. There is an ‘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,” Gavaskar signed off.