Former England skipper Michael Vaughan feels Virat Kohli is in no mental state at the moment after the Indian captain was dismissed after scoring only seven runs in the first innings of the third Test.
Vaughan believes Kohli is currently too anxious and desperate as he hasn’t been able to get going.
In fact, it has been 50 International innings since Kohli scored his last hundred at the top level. The talisman was once again dismissed while playing the fifth-sixth stump line as he tried to drive against James Anderson but could only manage an outside edge.
Vaughan added that Kohli is trying to play early, which is leading to his downfall. Kohli has been dismissed while chasing the ball at the sixth stump line in the ongoing series and he has failed to deliver the goods. The Indian captain has been averaging in the 20s since January 2020 and hasn’t looked at his best.
Kohli has been dismissed off deliveries, which he could have left easily and he isn’t showing the same patience that he had shown in the 2018 series where he had scored 593 runs in five Test matches.
Vaughan said while talking to Cricbuzz, “Virat Kohli is in no mental state at the minute. I’m looking at the way he’s playing throughout this series. He’s anxious, he’s desperate, he’s going to the ball a little bit too soon. When he got all those runs last time he was here, he was patient, he left the ball, he wore Anderson down, he waited for those straight balls. He’s not done that so far in this series.”
On the other hand, it has been a while since India’s middle-order has been struggling. Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane have failed to deliver in the last two years and Vaughan feels India is selecting their players on the basis of their reputation.
“I think India are selecting some of these players now purely on reputation. Rahane and Pujara played okay in the second innings at Lord’s. India is backing these players purely on reputation.”
India has failed to get going and there is no doubt that the Headingley pitch was certainly not a 78 all-out track. The visitors will need to make a solid comeback but it is going to be a difficult road back from here as England lead by 42 runs with all 10 wickets intact.
