Former Indian wicket-keeper bat Deep Dasgupta has downplayed Virat Kohli’s outside off-stump woes in the recently concluded Border-Gavaskar trophy 2024-25, which Australia won by 3-1. Kohli could only muster 190 runs in nine innings at an average of 23.75 and thus he failed to deliver the goods for the visitors.

In nine innings, Kohli was dismissed caught behind on eight occasions as his liking of fiddling with outside off-stump deliveries led to his downfall. However, the former Bengal cricketer noted that Kohli tried his best to negate his similar dismissal but every batter got out in a similar fashion in the series.

The veteran was livid with himself after he got out in the second innings at the SCG as India could only give a target of 162 to the Australians, which the hosts chased down with six wickets in hand.

Deep Dasgupta said on India Today, “It’s not a technical problem, I think. It’s not that he wasn’t trying—he was trying quite a bit. Throughout the series, across all five Test matches, he tried different things. We keep talking about ‘outside off-stump, outside off-stump.’ But the fact of the matter is, everyone gets out ‘outside off-stump.’

“Look at all the dismissals, except for the Perth Test where it was a bit different. In the last four Tests, 80 per cent of the dismissals were caught in the slips. Everyone got out that way.”

Dasgupta noted at least Kohli’s four to five dismissals came off deliveries, which were really good and thus the credit should be given to the Australian bowlers.

“People are talking about 8 out of 10 dismissals. Among those, there were four or five deliveries that were genuinely very good—you have to give credit to the bowlers. There may have been three or four where he could have left the ball, ones he went chasing in the fifth or sixth stump line. If you reflect on it, it was a kind of perfect storm for Virat Kohli.”

Kohli will look to bring his best in the upcoming Champions Trophy.