Will Virat Kohli stop getting dismissed on the outside off stump line now? AB De Villiers gives a solution

By Aryan Malik January 5, 2025 8:38 PM UTC

Virat Kohli has struggled a lot with the outside off-stump deliveries in the ongoing BGT Series
Scott Boland got the better of Virat Kohli for the fourth time in the BGT 2024-25 series | Image: Getty Images

The Australian Cricket Team, under the leadership of Pat Cummins successfully defeated Team India in the Sydney Test-Match by a margin of six wickets and this wicket helped them to seal the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy series by 3-1.

While the Aussie players are going to be really happy with this series win, the Indians on the other hand, are facing a lot of criticism following the series defeat especially the Indian batters. Senior players like Virat Kohli are the main targets of the critics. 

In the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy series, Kohli got dismissed on the outside off-stump line eight times and versus the Aussie bowlers, the former Indian skipper looked helpless & cluseless versus the them. Now, AB De Villiers, the South African legend has made a huge revelation regarding how the former Indian and RCB skipper can tackle the outside off-stump deliveries.

'Every Batsman in the world struggles with some weakness'

AB De Villiers said, "He (Virat) can definitely find a solution to the the outside off-stump deliveries. Every batsman out there has a weakness and if I talk about myself, then the deliveries which used to come towards the pads in a straight line used to trouble me a lot. But I learnt from it and scored a lot of runs in the remainder of my career. 

I still remember the Test-Series versus England (ENG). The series kicked off on a positive note and I scored good amount of runs in the Durban Test-Match and everything was going smoothly. But, then the duo of Stuart Broad and James Anderson started dismissing me on a successive note and especially, with the new ball, I got out constantly".

What's the solution to the problem of Virat Kohli? 

AB de Villiers believes that old balls keep running in the mind of the 36-year-old, which automatically affects the next forthcoming delivery. What happened before on the previous ball doesn't matter... He (Virat) should play every ball like a new and fresh one, he should just forget thinking about the previous deliveries. If finds success in doing this properly, then he can play the outside off-stump deliveries in a much better way.

Do Read: 3 Big Positives for Team India from the Embarrassing BGT Series Loss against Australia

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