Michael Clarke suggested that the century in Perth will boost Virat Kohli’s confidence.© AFP
Former Australia captain Michael Clarke has slammed the Pat Cummins-led side for allowing India star batter Virat Kohli to score a century in the 1st Test in Perth earlier this week. Kohli arrived in Australia under a lot of pressure after failing in India’s home Test series loss against New Zealand, where he scored just 93 across six innings. However, the former India captain was in vintage batting form as he scored his 30th Test century, and the 81st of his glorious international career.
While analysing his knock, Clarke suggested that the century in Perth will boost Kohli’s confidence for the remainder of the series.
“Yeah, you couldn’t ask for a better second innings, really. How he come to the crease, minimal pressure on him, he wasn’t scoring as many runs as he would like, sort of walk out like that, team dominating the situation. He played the way we know Virat can play though. So what he did was he was sharp, he was switched on because he knew he needed some runs for his own confidence. So he did the hard work early, and then he earned the right to play his natural game. And by the end of his innings, it was, everyone was sitting there saying, Virat’s back, and there’s no doubt about it,” Clarke told ESPN Around The Wicket.
Clarke blasted Australia for allowing Kohli to settle so early into the series, adding that the hosts have an uphill task ahead with Kohli seemingly back to his best.
“Now, as I mentioned before, a ball was bowled this series. The best players, you don’t want them on top at the start of the series. You want them to have to work their backside off to get into the series. And if they score 100 by Test match three or four, you sort of accept that because they’re so good. But to allow him to get 100 in that first test, we’ve got some work to do now to keep him down because he’s full of confidence. He’s got that strut back. And that’s when he’s at his best. That’s why he’s been the best player in the world for such a long period of time,” he added.
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