Former India skipper Sourav Ganguly on Thursday leaped to Virat Kohli’s defence after twin failures in Pune during his side’s 333-run loss. Ganguly singled out Kohli’s run during in the Australian summer of 2014-15, where the latter slammed four hundreds in as many Tests, reported India Today.
Kohli made scores of 0 and 13 at Pune, his poorest returns in a Test where he played both the innings, and was expected to dominate the Australian bowling attack, who arrested a nine-match losing streak in Asia in style.
A pragmatic Ganguly viewed Kohli’s failure as a one-off, “Kohli is human and he had to fail one day. He failed in both innings in Pune. I think he played a little bit of a loose shot in the first innings outside the off stump but the Australians bowled him there,” Ganguly said.
The Cricket Association of Bengal chief expected Kohli to get back to run-scoring ways, and hailed his record against Australia, “They must have seen Stuart Broad and James Anderson bowling to him in England outside the off stump. In the second innings, I think the game was already over. A 441-run target was a humongous task. Kohli will come back because he is a class act. His record against Australia is unreal,” he said.
The Australia tour came straight after the 28-year-old endured a nightmarish England tour, where he failed to bring up a half-century in 10 innings. Despite India losing the series 0-2 Down Under, Kohli produced a stellar individual show with four hundreds. In Adelaide, he even slammed tons in each innings, albeit in a losing cause,
“To watch those four back-to-back Test match hundreds against Australia in Australia [was surreal]. I have not seen even Sachin Tendulkar do that,” Ganguly said. “Getting four Test match hundreds in every venue on your second trip to Australia is a special special effort,” Ganguly added.