Virat Kohli has shown some issues against incoming deliveries. Image Credits: AFP
Playing a moving ball is never easy for a top-order batter, irrespective of the format. One way, they are lucky the white ball doesn’t swing or seam as much, and it barely lasts long anyway. On the kind of pitches India have played, at least recently, top-order batting has been among the easiest jobs for the same reason.
In New Zealand, however, the script hasn’t been the same in ODIs, with bounce and movement exaggeratedly high even deep into the innings. Batting has collectively been hard for both sides, but India’s top-order ODI batters have felt a world of difference from their last stint against West Indies. Among them has been Virat Kohli, whose latest gung-ho approach has been mighty impressive but has shown some issues against early inward movement.
Does Virat Kohli have issues with incoming deliveries?
For starters, Matt Henry’s dismissal delivery was hard for any batter to tackle. It jagged back in late with a wobble seam, but more importantly, it stayed low and went under the bat. But then, Virat Kohli has shown issues with incoming deliveries multiple times recently.
For instance, Jayden Seales bowled just outside off stump and seamed a hint back to crash the stumps. Even against Xavier Bartlett in Australia last year, Kohli was dismissed while playing across the line, as the ball went past his inside edge.
A common pattern has emerged in all these dismissals. The pacers initially moved the ball away from him before seaming it into him. Even Seales attempted an away swinger, which was called a wide, before removing him immediately on a golden duck.
Since last year’s Australia series, Virat Kohli has been dismissed three times in the powerplay on deliveries moving into him against pace. One reason behind some of his recent struggles could be his conscious work to avoid outside edging early in the innings.
Kohli has employed a middle-and-leg guard, with his trigger movement naturally taking him towards the off stump. That helps him avoid nicking the corridor lines, his ever-present problem, and understand where his off stump is. However, when the ball moves in unexpectedly, he’s forced to close his bat face early, creating a gap between bat and pad.
Virat Kohli vs Matt Henry in Mount Maunganui
Now Kohli has evolved that setup into a far more proactive, aggressive white-ball template, so he intentionally tries to keep his body inside the line of the ball and extend his arms through the off side. That’s the right approach too, since the pacers usually hold the channel line in conditions that don’t allow enough movement. But the moment the ball curls in, he can only get an inside edge, or occasionally miss it altogether.
That’s precisely what happened on Henry’s dismissal delivery. He was beside the line and couldn’t get behind it. A similar incident followed in IPL 2026 when Prince Yadav removed him with a nip-backer in Lucknow.
Is Kohli’s issue a massive problem for India?
Virat Kohli vs pace in powerplay since Australia series
Broadly, Virat Kohli is still well equipped to handle most of the challenges pacers pose in ODIs. If anything, his revamped approach gives him more scoring options and shields some of his previous issues with deliveries moving away. In modern-day cricket, the vicious movement seen in New Zealand is an anomaly; the ball doesn’t move as much anywhere else.
And yet, Kohli would want to solve some of his new issues against incoming deliveries, at least in certain conditions. For instance, he could try to cover the line whenever India lose an early wicket, and the ball swings. He can still be aggressive but a bit more vigilant, playing with softer hands and a relaxed grip at times.
Word spreads fast these days, and more teams will start bowling slightly fuller to him up front to extract more movement. With more wobble-seam bowlers, Kohli’s front-on stance could sometimes put him in trouble. That’s again limited to certain conditions and his own entry points.
Either way, it’s imperative to improve before it becomes too exploitable. Kohli is not the same batter against movement anymore, so even the slightest deviation could trouble him. He’s bound to have slowed reflexes, even if his consistency hasn’t taken a hit just yet.
Part of the problem is also the conditions he usually sees at home or in the subcontinent, which don’t give him enough exposure to more challenging batting conditions. The 2027 World Cup is in South Africa, where the pitches will have some juice, even if not as extreme as in New Zealand. The incoming deliveries from pacers could deter his otherwise fluent ODI approach.
