Virat Kohli will be telling his little mate MS Dhoni ‘I want a good wicket’ : Rodney Hogg

03/16/2017

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Former Australian pacer Rodney Hogg has said that Virat Kohli’s poor form would have forced him to demand a flat wicket for the third Test of the India-Australia series. Hogg also compared Kohli with Sachin Tendulkar stating that the latter would always request a flat wicket during a series.

Virat Kohli has led the Indian team with elan in this series but has failed to make a direct contribution to the team in terms of runs so far. His batting contributions in this series, 0, 13, 12 and 15, are contrary to his form coming into the series. The Indian captain scored four Test double-centuries in the four consecutive Test series - the first man in history to do so. But Hogg, who played 31 Tests and 78 ODIs for Australia, criticized Kohli by calling him a flat-track bully.

If Sachin saw three blades of grass he wanted the Bunsen Burner to get rid of them

“Kohli how’s he gone so far this series? 0, 12, 13, 13. He’s (Kohli) a megastar and his average has now gone below 50. The lights go off when a batsman’s average goes below 50. They get paranoid. All the great batsmen, Michael Clarke ended up under 50, Steve Waugh just went under 50 near the end. He (Kohli) is starting to panic”, Hogg was quoted as saying by the Indian Express.

He added, “He will be there three days before the game telling his little mate Dhoni I want a good wicket, a good wicket, a good batting wicket. You will get a good batting wicket…we’ve had two wickets that have favoured bowling, so you haven’t had to worry about a lot of overs. But you get a flat wicket in India you’ve got to churn out 120 to 140 overs, if you’ve only got four bowlers you’re in mega trouble, so you need to play the fifth bowler.”

Hogg went on to claim that Sachin Tendulkar was the same as he would always ask the pitch curator to take off any grass from the wicket during his playing days and Kohli is just following his steps.

“If he (Sachin) saw three blades of grass he wanted the Bunsen Burner to get rid of them, he wanted flat wickets, that’s how they played,” Hogg said.