Manjrekar criticizes Virat's dismissal leading to a decrease in average at Adelaide

Following an outstanding century in Perth, Virat faced a setback in adding to his Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024 run tally when he was only able to score seven runs in the first innings. On the eighth ball he faced, bowled by Starc, a length ball outside off with a significant bounce proved to be his downfall. Caught between playing the shot or leaving it, Virat ended up unintentionally deflecting the ball towards Steve Smith at slips.

After his dismissal, Manjrekar took to X and wrote, " One important reason why Virat's average has slipped to 48 now, is the unfortunate weakness outside off. But more crucially his adamance to not try another way to tackle it."

https://x.com/sanjaymanjrekar/status/1864912696631865482

Virat has been struggling with facing outside off-stump deliveries since years, often edging the ball to wicketkepeer or a slip fielder while attempting a cover drive, one of most beloved and high-scoring shots.

From averaging 54.98 at the end of 2019, Virat's average has now declined to 47.91. In 120 matches and 204 runs, he has scored 9,152 runs with 30 centuries and 31 fifties. His best score is 254*.

Since 2020 start, he has scored just 1,950 runs in 36 Tests and 63 innings at a sub-par average of 32.50, with three centuries and nine fifties. His best score is 186. He has witnessed a huge drop of form in recent years in Tests.

This year in eight Tests, Virat has scored 362 runs at an average of 27.84, with a century and a fifty in 15 innings and best score of 100*.

Coming to the match, India won the toss and elected to bat first. After Yashasvi Jaiswal was removed for a golden duck, KL Rahul and Shubman Gill put on a 69-run stand. After that India lost wickets regularly, though they witnessed fightbacks from Nitish Kumar Reddy and Ravichandran Ashwin in the later half of the innings.

Mitchell Starc was the pick of the bowlers for Australia. Pat Cummins and Scott Boland got two scalps each.

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