Virat Kohli Dismissed by Josh Hazlewood: A Tough Start for India on Australia Tour

Virat Kohli Dismissed by Josh Hazlewood: Undeniably difficult? Too unfortunate? Dreadful creation? You can call it whatever you please but the scorecard remains unchanged. Five runs on the board read, Virat Kohli out first ball bowled Josh Hazlewood- caught Usman Khawaja in the first test match between India and Australia played at the Optus stadium in Perth. After India opted to bat first in the Border-Gavaskar trophy opener, Australia had sent Yashasvi Jaiswal and Devdutt Padikkal back to the hut without scoring a single run but the general hush in the ground, the commentator's excitement, and let’s be honest the stillness of of millions of Indian viewers glued to the broadcast was loud enough to suggest that Kohli's departure was the highlight of the day. Why not?

The Test series was, after all, conceived in such a manner that it was named after the most interesting polemics between Kohli and the Australian cricket team. And we can say that once again, the first round of the contest was won by Australia, featuring Josh Hazlewood.

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With India's innings going nowhere at 14/2 in 11 overs on a spicy pitch, whenever Virat Kohli came out he always walked in positively and with an air of business. It was an attempt waiting to be made. Australia were up for it. Perth was up for it, as was Hazlewood, the best bowler from Australia on that Friday morning.

Nothing much happened in the first five balls, but one could tell that Kohli was getting restless and wanted to get forward to take on Hazlewood. That has been his way of dealing with pace bowlers for a long time now. He prefers to get off the front foot no matter the game situation or conditions. Hazlewood was aware of that. His last delivery was pitched quite full at the end of the over but not so full that Kohli could drive off the front foot. It swung away a little and left the ex-Indian captain leading.

Kohli managed an inside edge on his eighth ball against Hazlewood and so achieved the difficult task of getting off the mark. ‘It’s a big load off his back,’ echoed once more Michale Vaughan, the former England captain who was on commentary.

It appeared to be the case for a short while as Kohli took another single off Australian skipper Pat Cummins and capped that off with a delightful straight drive after having the strike returned to him in the same over. It wasn’t the trademark booming Kohli cover drive that sped away to the boundary but rather a well timed, Deepak Push type shot that conveyed one word – dominant.

So far, so good. But Kohli had Hazlewood in front of him again. The right-handed pacer had not dished out anything upto that point. Pacing lengths, great lines and little in and out movement to keep the batter in check; Hazleood had been magnificnet since the morning.

Good length was the order of the day and in the 17th over, Hazlewood likely decided that he would be bringing his length back. One was accommodated by Kohli adequately, the second one was not. To give credit to the current batting great, that was something that he or any other batsman for that matter couldn’t have done much about. It was almost similar in length to the last ball and pitched just outside off. The difference this time however was the fact that it had height. It aimed for Kohli and even before he could pull his hands away, the speed was linearly twice of that of the last delivery - 2× in height. Kohli’s glove was touched and the ball raced toward Khawaja at first slip for an easy catch.

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This was also the fourth occasion that Hazlewood got the better of Kohli in a Test Match.

As Mark Howard commented, "That's it for Virat." What Howie perhaps meant was that Kohli was finished for the first innings in Perth but to Indian cricket fans who have been hungry for Kohli’s runs for a long time, it sounded rather cruel and ominous. The beginning of the Australian summer was not that great but this is the case of five Test matches and of course, the focus will be on Kohli.

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