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The legendary Sunil Gavaskar on Monday urged India superstar Virat Kohli to draw inspiration from Sachin Tendulkar's monumental 241 against Australia in Sydney in 2004 and refrain from playing the cover drive in order to end his persistent struggle against deliveries outside off-stump.
On a rain-marred third day of the ongoing Brisbane Test, Kohli copped yet another failure when Josh Hazlewood had him caught behind for 3 as a struggling India ended at 51 for 4 when the stumps were drawn.
Gavaskar said Kohli, who has scores of 5, 100 not out, 7, 11 and 3 so far on this tour, need not look beyond "his hero" Tendulkar, who responded with an exceptional 436-ball 241 including 33 fours at the SCG when he too was going through a similar phase of getting caught behind during the Australia tour of 2003-04.
Tendulkar's knock, for which he batted more than 10 hours, is widely considered as one of his best-ever as the legendary batter curbed his instinct to drive and scored the majority of his runs on the on-side.
“He (Kohli) only needs to look at his hero, Sachin Tendulkar. The way in which he (Tendulkar) had kept his patience and control on his off-side game, scoring those 241 runs at Sydney,” Gavaskar told Star Sports.
“He did not play any shot on the off-side, or at least in the cover (region) because before that he was getting dismissed while attempting to play in covers.
“The shots that he played were pretty much straight or on the on-side,” he added.
Gavaskar said Kohli, who has been caught behind the wickets thrice on this tour, must look to defend every single delivery in the channel of the off-stump and find other scoring areas like Tendulkar did.
“Similarly, he (Kohli) should keep a control on his mind and on his game. If the ball is on the off-stump, (he should think that) ‘I would defend it. I would not try to score of it',” Gavaskar said.
The legendary batter said Kohli should trust his bottom-hand play more than going for his drives in order to banish his troubles.
“He has such a wonderful bottom hand play, with that he can play in that area, straight or towards midwicket,” Gavaskar said.