Former Indian cricketer and commentator, Sanjay Manjrekar decided to share his knowledge of batting with the Test captain of the Indian cricket team, Virat Kohli, with the hopes of the skipper listening to him and putting some effort into his footwork in order to stop getting dismissed quickly and manage to stay on the pitch for longest innings.

In the first of three Test matches in South Africa, Kohli managed to get dismissed by giving up an outer edge for either a caught behind to the wicketkeeper or the fielder standing at slip. This isn’t the first time in an international innings that a ball was delivered to Kohli away from the off-stump with the intention of having him step out and go for the shot he loves the most - the cover drive.

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During the first four matches of the India-England Test series which is scheduled to resume in June this year, Kohli was dismissed in a similar manner all five times that he went on the pitch to bat for. Pacemen James Anderson and Ollie Robinson were specifically the ones getting their way with him by doing the same again and again.

A veteran of 37 Tests, and 74 ODIs who scored 2043 and 1994 runs in the two formats, respectively, Manjrekar feels he has found where the Indian skipper is going wrong with his batting technique and has offered his thoughts on fixing it.

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According to the 56-year old analyst, Kohli’s habit of lunging on the front foot, regardless of the kind of delivery coming his way, is coming in the way of his success with the bat. Here’s where Manjrekar wishes Kohli to tweak his game a little bit and add some backfoot movement to his batting arsenal in order to become less predictable and open himself to play more versatile shots in the future.

Unlike the common belief that can be found on social media, which is asking Kohli to simply let go of the balls coming outside of the off-stump, Manjrekar says that playing some of his shots on the back foot would give him more room to operate, even in that area and runs would continue to flow in for him.

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