India’s star batter Virat Kohli had been struggling in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2025 against Australia and the primary reason for his dismissals is simple – unable to resist poking at balls outside off-stump.
The Australian pacers, especially Scott Boland, have taken full advantage of Kohli’s recent weakness, which could be the primary reason for India’s almost flop show in the Test series against the hosts.
On DAY 1 of the fifth and the last Test against Australia at Sydney too, Kohli made the same mistake and had to walk back to the pavilion.
Playing the third delivery of the 32nd over at Sydney, Kohli pushed hard a good length and climbing ball, got a thick edge that flew quickly to third and Beau Webster took the catch. At that time, Kohli had already played 68 deliveries and scored 17 important runs. This left India being dominated by Australia at 72/4.
Kohli’s nicking off the slips has become a major concern for India now. He was dismissed for the fourth time to Scott Boland in six innings and caught behind for the seventh time.
Kohli vs Scott Boland:
Before Sydney, Boland dismissed Kohli in the second innings of the Adelaide Test, the first innings of the Melbourne Test, and now in Sydney. Not only this, but two years ago at the Lords’, Kohli was dismissed by Boland only while India and Australia were playing the final of the World Test Championship.
After the end of the day’s play as Australia’s score read 9/1, Boland said, as Hindustan Times quoted, “He sort of feels like he leaves a lot, and then he wants to play the ball once he gets in. So once he gets in, we just want to switch our lines a little bit to fifth stump and it’s working at the moment.”
Where does Boland stand?
Stats-wise, Boland is not the only bowler to have dismissed the former Indian skipper multiple times. Before him, James Anderson and Nathan Lyon dismissed Kohli seven times, followed by Moeen Ali and Ben Stokes on six occasions each. Stuart Broad, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Kagiso Rabada, Peter Siddle and Mitchell Starc have gotten him out five times each.
Meanwhile, Boland picked 4/31 for Australia and now has 15 scalps to his name in the BGT, making him the fifth-highest wicket-taker of the series, behind Jasprit Bumrah (31), Pat Cummins (22), Mitchell Starc (18) and Mohammed Siraj (16).
