“He has changed his guard. He is up and out of his crease, you’ll see that back foot is more over on middle and off-stump than we’re used to seeing,” Ponting said before leaving the game to attend the IPL auction. “He is trying to get into the line of the ball so he can hit the ball through the leg-side.
Virat Kohli upper cuts Mitchell Starc.Credit: Getty Images
“The reason he is doing that is because the way the Australians have bowled to him the last couple of times he has been in Australia, it has been this wider line, [it] has been his undoing.
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“Then you have a look at his dismissals against fast bowling since 2022. Look how many are wide outside the off-stump. That is why he has changed his guard today and that is why he is more on off-stump. He is trying to get into the line that the Australians will bowl and the majority of his runs early on, on the leg-side.”
Those adjustments were given only a brief view on day one, before Josh Hazlewood summoned a sharp lifter that caught out Kohli as he tried to get forward on a fresh pitch. Sunil Gavaskar was moved to suggest that Kohli’s stance so far out of his crease was unsuited to Australia.
But Test cricket’s team elements include the hard work of the top order to allow batters in positions four to seven to get going against an older ball: former opener Matthew Hayden has famously referred to the top three as “the engine room” and four to six as “interior decorators”.
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Jaiswal’s combination of silk and steel built the most lavish of foundations for Kohli, a welcome difference for him to some of the more rickety platforms India’s batters have become used to at home on difficult wickets in recent seasons.
A strong top-order performance can often set the scene for a breakthrough display by middle order players. In 1989 in England, a young opener called Mark Taylor forged his first Test hundred at Headingley. He smoothed a path for Steve Waugh to hammer an unbeaten innings of 177, also his first Test hundred, but after a much longer wait than Taylor.
For Kohli, the breathing room allowed him to get started at his own pace, waiting 10 balls for his first run and 22 for his first boundary, a delectable on drive back past Cummins. A six arrived when Kohli upper cut Mitchell Starc over third, and there was a sweep off Nathan Lyon and then a flick of Cummins to pass 50. The second half of the innings was a case of motoring to three figures and a declaration, both of which arrived more or less perfectly on time.
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His captain this week, Jasprit Bumrah, had spoken optimistically of Kohli’s chances of an impact on this series. He also has the benefit of good memories in Perth – he sculpted another superb century on this very ground in 2018.
“He’s one of the greats of the game,” Bumrah had said. “I have no doubts about how he’s preparing, he’s mentally switched on and looking to contribute. The signs are ominous.”
Ominous was a good way of describing the roar from Indian fans when Kohli reached his hundred. They composed a large proportion of the 26,166 spectators at Perth Stadium on a hot Sunday afternoon.
Should this be the start of a late-career resurgence for Kohli, the Australians won’t just see it on the scoreboard. Their ears will be ringing from the adulation of the vast Indian contingent that will follow this series right around the country.
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