Former India head coach Ravi Shastri feels that Virat Kohli and Steve Smith, who are lagging behind amongst the Fab four, will be dangerous and hungry to bounce back in the remaining two Tests of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Kohli and Smith have hit a century each in the ongoing Test series, but they lacked consistency over the three matches. The Indian maestro slammed a century in the second innings at Perth, but in the next three innings, he failed miserably and kept making the same mistakes – poking the ball outside the off stump to get caught behind.
Meanwhile, Smith has not been at his best with the bat this year, but his century in the Brisbane Test would have surely boosted his confidence.
The former India coach said that the consistent show from Joe Root and Kane Williamson and the emergence of young stars like Harry Brook will only make Kohli and Smith more dangerous to bounce back.
“I think they (Kohli and Smith) will have slipped down the ranks on current form because you know you’ve got the likes of Root taking off, there’s Williamson doing well, Harry Brook has come onto the scene, you know there are a lot of other young players pushing but these are class players. In a situation like this, you know they’ll be dangerous because they’ll be hungry,” Shastri said on the ICC Review.
Root is leading the scoring charts amongst the Fab Four this year with 1556 runs in 17 Tests at an average of 55.57. Meanwhile, Kane Williamson has the best test average – 59.58 among the four superstars, scoring 1013 runs.
Smith is at the bottom and scored just 337 runs but still has a better average (28.08) than Kohli, who has managed only 25.06 at an average of 25.06.
‘If Virat gets over that first 30, 40 minutes…’: Shastri
Shastri said that Smith already understood what he needed to do, as he scored a fine century in Brisbane.
“What’s needed you saw from Smith. It might have been a struggle early on but he was prepared to play the waiting game and be disciplined,” Shastri noted.
Talking about Kohli’s struggles, he suggested that he needs to show some discipline in the first 40 minutes to get into the zone.
“I think the same with Virat,” Shastri added. “If Virat gets over that first 30, 40 minutes, with serious application and discipline, I don’t think he’s (out of form), none of these guys are out of form,” Shastri concluded.
