Is Todd Murphy the real danger for Virat Kohli ahead of Ahmedabad Test

Star Indian batter Virat Kohli is yet to go big in the ongoing Test series against Australia. The 34-year-old old has already regained his form in white-ball cricket, but the struggles still continue in the longest format. One of the main reasons for Kohli’s failure over the past few years is his struggles against the off-spinners.

Now, the young Aussie spinner Todd Murphy has become another headache for the Indian batter in his debut series. The 22-year-old played his first Test in Nagpur and dismissed Kohli in his Test debut. He went on to send the star batter back to the pavilion in Delhi and Indore as well.

In the contest of 99 balls between the players in five innings, Murphy has conceded 41 runs against Kohli, while the Indian batter only scored 8 runs off the last 50 balls, getting dismissed two times. The Australian off-spinner has usually bowled low deliveries to Kohli which he couldn’t judge well and gave his wicket.

‘Nagpur wasn’t an ideal dismissal’ – Todd Murphy

“It’s been awesome, when I look back to Nagpur when he walked out to bat I was sort of at the top of my mark thinking this is as good as it gets, getting to bowl to a guy like that, so to be able to have that for the first three Tests has been awesome – a really enjoyable battle and no different to bowling to a lot of their guys. When they stand there it is daunting at times,” said Murphy while recalling the incident when dismissed Kohli in his debut Test, as reported by Cricbuzz.

“It’s always nice when it looks like that and I think the plans for around the wicket is always to challenge both sides of the edges. For that to work out the way it did was nice and to get him out again was awesome. It is always nice when plans come off. Nagpur wasn’t an ideal dismissal, but you take what you can get so to have a couple of times the last few games has been really nice and validation that what we are thinking works,” he added.

India are currently leading in a four-match Test series by 2-1. Both India and Australia are set to lock horns in the series decider at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad starting on March 9.