Former India
cricketer Sunil Gavaskar identified the reason for Virat Kohli’s dismissal on
Day 1 of the second Test against Sri Lanka in Bengaluru. Kohli, who received a
rousing reception from the M Chinnaswamy Stadium crowd, was looking fluent till
a delivery from off-spinner Dhananjaya de Silva kept lower than expected to hit
his front pad and the umpire raised his finger.

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In the 28th over
of India’s innings, Dhananjaya’s short of a good length delivery turned and
kept low, hitting Kohli just above the ankle region and the umpire had no
hesitation in raising his finger. A shell-shocked Kohli, who tried to turn the
ball towards the on-side, walked back after scoring 23 off 48 balls on
Saturday.

Gavaskar said
“playing across the line” cost Virat Kohli his wicket.

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“Today you
could say that the shot he played shouldn’t have been played. The trajectory
meant, he went on to the backfoot like the first Test in Mohali but this time
he played across his front pad, which meant he was always going to struggle. If
he missed it, he was always going to be a candidate for LBW, which is exactly
what happened. He knew as soon as he missed and the ball hit his pads, he was
right in front. He didn’t even look for a referral. So, playing across the line
cost him today,” Gavaskar said in the post-Tea show on Star Sports.

Gavaskar also
heaped praise on Sri Lankan bowlers and said that the Chinnaswamy pitch was not
easy for the batters.

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“Sri Lankan
bowlers have bowled well… Jayawickrama settled down after the first over.
Every bowler is going to bowl the odd loose ball but they’ve stuck to their
task well. The ball is gripping and turning so it isn’t gonna be easy for the
batters,” Gavaskar added.

‘Very little’

Former India
pacer Ajit Agarkar said there’s “very little” that Kohli could have done
with that delivery.

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“There’s
very little that he could’ve done. That partnership with Hanuma Vihari was
good. They put a li’ll bit of pressure. They cashed in whenever there was an
opportunity. You generally try and play off the backfoot when the ball is
spinning but that once just kept low and he had no chance,” Agarkar said.

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In their first
innings of the day/night Test, India were bowled out for 252. Shreyas Iyer
top-scored with 92. For Sri Lanka, Lasith Embuldeniya and Praveen Jayawickrama
picked up three wickets apiece.