You need to get Virat Kohli out of his comfort zone: Jeff Thomson

New Delhi [India], February 2 (ANI): Former Australian great and legendary fast bowler Jeff Thomson feels Pat Cummins and co need to be patient against star India batter Virat Kohli ahead of the much-anticipated test series between India and Australia. According to Thomson, the Aussie bowlers need to get the star Indian batter out of his comfort zone.

“It is no different to anyone else. If you are bowling to Virat, it’s the same as anybody else. You try to tie him down, make him uncomfortable. Don’t let him score runs as it is difficult to keep him quite as he has such wide range of shots. Make him take more risk. Get him out of his comfort zone, easier said than done.

Good bowlers will be able to do so more often. That’s how you bowl to great batters like Viv Richards, Greg Chappell and Sunny Gavaskar,” said former Australia pacer Jeff Thomson on Backstage with Boria show.

Virat Kohli has roared back to form in ODIs and T20Is but is yet to score a ton in Test matches since November 2019 when he slammed a ton against Bangladesh in Day-Night Test at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

“You can’t back off. You got to use your head. It’s your mental battle against him (Virat). The one who breaks first loses out. You got to be stronger mentally than him to get success. Good players – both batters and bowlers work that out.

They got to have a Plan B or C and see what happens. Some days it doesn’t work but if you know you tried your best and did not bowl too many garbage and make him score easy runs, that’s what you can do,” added Jeff Thomson.

Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah last played for the Indian team in the T20Is at home again against Australia in September last year, before being ruled out of the T20 World Cup due to a stress fracture in his back.

And the last Test match he played was way back in July 2022 in Birmingham. The 29-year-old pacer’s availability for the first Test is highly doubtful but he is expected to be back for the second Test.

Talking about Jasprit Bumrah, Thomson said, “Well, he as to prioritise what formats he wants to play.

Whether he wants to play white ball cricket or test cricket or both. If I was playing now, it would have been very hard to play test matches because you get so much money in the short version of the game. We didn’t have to think about money in our days because there was no money.

Now it’s a huge business. You got to work out how long I am going to play for. I think you have to be more cunning in terms of workload and what you got to play. If you are good enough, you will be picked.”

India will take on Australia in four-match Border-Gavaskar Test series starting on the 9th of February in Nagpur. For India this series holds a lot of importance as a 4-0 or 3-1 win will help them make it to the final of World Test Championship final.