5 rookie mistakes that captain Virat Kohli could avoid

#3 Absence of a gully and forward short leg

Absence of a gully has cost Kohli time and again

So many edges have gone through the gully for a spinner this series that placing it right from the start is almost a no-brainer. Kohli, almost unbelievably, prefers fielders in the deep to a gully.

Like Dhoni, he has been a ball-chaser, setting a gully only after a couple of chances have gone begging. What is more striking is the fact that Kohli doesn’t go for a Gully even when he really doesn’t need to care for runs and India has a lead.

In situations, where one can gamble and give away a few runs to purchase a wicket or two, Kohli shies away from the risk. That is hard to explain especially on Indian tracks, against England, where chances of getting a catch in gully are almost a given.

Even Joe Root, the most reliable of all England batsmen on display, was surprised by a couple of balls that suddenly jumped at him, edging them through gully. However, he breathed a sigh of relief on both occasions that no man was catching there.

Similarly, the forward short leg is an important position as much for pouching catches as it is for pressurising the batsman, something Sunil Gavaskar on air never really stops elaborating on.

Kohli rarely goes for the forward short leg, even when the batsman is constantly inside-edging the ball on to their pads with the ball lobbing up in front of them.