"Generally everyone else falls pale when Kohli scores a century" - Aakash Chopra on Virat Kohli being overshadowed by Ishan Kishan
Aakash Chopra has said that it was unusual to see Virat Kohli being totally overshadowed by his batting partner despite scoring a century in the third ODI between India and Bangladesh.
Kohli scored 113 runs off 91 balls and strung together a 290-run second-wicket partnership with Ishan Kishan (210 runs off 131 deliveries) as the Men in Blue set a 410-run target for the Tigers. The hosts were then bowled out for 182 as the visitors registered a comprehensive 227-run win.
While reviewing India's batting in a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra picked Kishan as his Player of the Match. Regarding Kohli's knock, he said:
"Ishan Kishan was playing at one end and Virat Kohli was there at the other end. This is an interesting one. Generally everyone else falls pale when Kohli scores a century, you will find it rarely that he is playing well and scores a century but playing second fiddle to the extent that there was no focus on him at all."
Chopra lauded the former Indian skipper for surpassing Ricky Ponting's record of the second-most centuries in international cricket, elaborating:
"You and I know that Virat Kohli scored a century in this match, has come to No. 2 in terms of most centuries in international cricket, this is absolutely phenomenal, but the focus was on Ishan. It was that type of innings, an extremely easy catch was also dropped by Litton Das, but after that he scored a century."
Saturday's century was Kohli's 72nd in international cricket. He now trails only Sachin Tendulkar, who has 100 international tons to his name.
"There is one thing that is a problem" - Aakash Chopra on Shikhar Dhawan failing again
Chopra picked Shikhar Dhawan's consistent failures in the series as a negative for the Men in Blue, saying:
"There is one thing that is a problem, and that is Shikhar Dhawan got out early once again. He fell prey to Mehidy Hasan Miraz one more time. He was dismissed while playing the reverse sweep in the first match, he got out differently in the second match, and here he was hit on the pads while defending."
Chopra feels Kishan and Shubman Gill's excellent recent performances could put the veteran opener's place in India's ODI side at stake. The reputed commentator explained:
"So three low scores. When you see three low scores in isolation, you say it's not a problem because he is a very good player and has done extremely well earlier. But when you see that Shubman Gill was doing very well earlier and when Ishan Kishan got a chance here, he scored a double century in 126 balls."
Not even a single of those 9 innings has SR of 100. Shikhar Dhawan's last 9 ODI innings:
3 (8) | 8 (10) | 7 (17) | Vs Bangladesh (in Bangladesh)
28 (45) | 3 (10) | 72 (77) | Vs New Zealand (in NZ)
8 (14) | 13 (20) | 4 (16) | Vs South Africa (at home)
➡️ Not even a single of those 9 innings has SR of 100.
#JustSaying
Dhawan managed just 18 runs in his three innings against Bangladesh. The southpaw has had a middling 2022, with his 688 runs in 22 games coming at a slightly below-par average of 34.40 and an underwhelming strike rate of 74.21.