"What happened to Usman Khawaja?" - Sanjay Bangar defends Virat Kohli's mode of dismissals in BGT 2024-25

Sanjay Bangar has defended Virat Kohli regarding his mode of dismissals in the recently concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25. The former India batting coach pointed out that most batters from both sides, including Australia's veteran opener Usman Khawaja, were dismissed similarly.

India suffered a 1-3 loss in the five-match series against Australia and were knocked out of the race for a spot in the World Test Championship (WTC) final. All eight of Kohli's dismissals in the series were to catches behind the stumps to deliveries outside the off-stump.

During a discussion on the Star Sports show 'Follow the Blues', Bangar was asked about his thoughts on Kohli repeatedly falling prey to Australia's game plan of bowling outside the off-stump.

"The conditions were juicy. If you see Australia's top order, what happened to Usman Khawaja? Usman Khawaja has played in those conditions and he too repeatedly got out caught behind or in the slip cordon. So batters from both sides got out in the slip cordon because the pitches were so helpful," he responded.

The former India all-rounder pointed out that batters were bound to get out to catches behind the wickets on seamer-friendly Australian pitches.

"The Brisbane pitch was helpful and the pink ball is always helpful. Perth and Melbourne were the only flat pitches. Brisbane, Adelaide and Sydney were the spiciest wickets. Batters generally get out behind in such conditions," Bangar observed.

Virat Kohli aggregated 190 runs at an average of 23.75 in nine innings in BGT 2024-25. Usman Khawaja also struggled throughout the series, scoring 184 runs at an average of 20.44 in 10 innings.

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"His performance is not as bad as it looks" - Sanjay Bangar on Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli scored an unbeaten 100 in India's second innings of the first Test in Perth. [P/C: Getty]

In the same video, Sanjay Bangar opined that Virat Kohli hasn't performed as badly as the numbers suggest.

"I will cast back on his performance a little. If we are clubbing him with someone, if we see in comparison, this year has still been decent for him because he scored 76 or 80 runs in the Bengaluru Test and a hundred here in Perth. He definitely got out to a pattern but his performance is not as bad as it looks," he said.

However, the cricketer-turned-commentator acknowledged that Kohli would be extremely disappointed with his dismissal in India's first innings of the Boxing Day Test.

"He might have been most disappointed with the Melbourne Test match because he had a fantastic partnership with Yashasvi Jaiswal. There he got out for 36. If you remove two or three dismissals, a lot of his dismissals happened against good balls, and batters get out to such balls quite often," Bangar observed.

Virat Kohli (36) added 102 runs for the third wicket with Yashasvi Jaiswal (82) in India's first innings in Melbourne. The former India captain nicked a Scott Boland delivery to Alex Carey behind the wickets soon after Jaiswal was run out after a mix-up with Kohli.