India’s premier batter Virat Kohli could not get off-the-mark during the Bengaluru Test as he perished for a nine-ball duck. The conditions were not suitable for batting after it rained over the past few days. The ball was moving around a lot and Kohli too could not get a hang of things. William ORourke bowled a back-of-a-length delivery which jagged back in sharply and Kohli got a thickish inside-edge on it. It flew to Glenn Phillips, who was at leg-slip. It was a sharp catch taken by Philips. In the absence of Shubman Gill, Kohli walked out to bat at No. 3 in a Test match after eight years and the outing did not turn out to be a memorable one.
This was former India captain Kohli’s 38th international duck – the most for any active cricketer along with New Zealand’s Tim Southee. India skipper Rohit Sharma is third in the unwanted list with 33 ducks.
At the time of filing the copy, India were reduced to 31 for four. Rishabh Pant is in the middle as KL Rahul has just joined him.
Earlier, India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bat against New Zealand in the rain-truncated opening Test on Thursday.
India made two changes with Sarfaraz Khan replacing an injured Shubman Gill, who was not “100 per cent” according to the skipper, and Kuldeep Yadav replacing seamer Akash Deep as a third spinner.
“Shubman Gill was unavailable for selection of the first Test due to a neck stiffness,” the Indian team management informed after the toss.
he first day’s play was washed out due to persistent rain.
India and New Zealand will play two more Tests, at Pune from October 24-28 and at Mumbai from November 1-5.
