Virat Kohli’s off-stump weakness is giving him a lot of trouble in Australia, with the rival bowlers consistently targeting the corridor of uncertainty to dismiss the batter. In India’s first innings of the third Test, Josh Hazlewood bowled a fifth stump line to him, and all he could do was to give a regulation catch to wicket-keeper Alex Carey. It has become a never-ending problem for Virat in the last few years, and several legendary cricketers have urged him to learn from Sachin Tendulkar’s Sydney masterclass.

The former India batter scored a double hundred and didn’t play a single ball that was pitched wide outside the off-stump in that particular knock. In the fourth and final Test of the series, Sachin accumulated an unbeaten 241 runs off 436 balls in 2004. In his conversation with Sunil Gavaskar, Mark Nicholas spoke about Sachin’s great knock and how the batter simply blocked the off-side and played most of his shots on the other side of the wicket.

Gavaskar also opined on Kohli’s form and urged him to watch the video of his previous big knocks in Australia to return to form..

“There is another innings to go in this Test match, and then you have two more Test matches coming up. Virat has enough time to score runs. His three dismissals happened on very good deliveries. However, the fourth one in Brisbane was a no-show. It was a poor delivery, and he still failed to leave it. He could have done it easily.

“Sachin was facing similar issues, and he made up his mind to forget the off-side in a Test against Australia in Sydney. He achieved success and scored a double hundred. I feel Virat should watch the videos of his good knocks in Australia and take inspiration from them. He is a good payer as you can’t score 9000 runs in Test cricket like that,” he said on Star Sports.

Kohli has registered scores of 5, 100*, 7, 11, and 3 so far in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25.