Team India skipper Virat Kohli has had a poor run with the bat throughout the series in New Zealand. He has recorded only one fifty in the nine innings across formats and will desperate to get his scoring boots on in the second and the final Test starting from February 29 (Saturday) at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch. However, the Kiwis will be up for the Kohli threat in the final match of the tour, asserted Tom Latham.
Kohli's poor form took a toll on the team as India went down 3-0 in the ODI series followed by the ten-wicket drubbing in the first Test at the Basin Reserve in Wellington. Virat Kohli managed only 201 runs from nine innings at an average just over 22 which is not up to Kohli's standards. Moreover, this is one of his poor outings ever since he broke into the international scene.
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The talismanic run-scorer, who dropped to No. 2 in the ICC Test Rankings for batsmen, will be desperate to make the most of the opportunity in the final outing in Christchurch. However, ahead of the last encounter, Tom Latham stated that the Kiwi pacers are ready to tackle the Virat Kohli threat before praising the Delhi lad.
“When Virat comes out to bat we will be ready. He is a quality player and there is a reason why he is up around that No.1 rank for such a period of time,” Latham said at the pre-match press conference on Thursday.
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Moreover, Tom Latham also said that they will leave no stones unturned to get the better of Virat Kohli at the Hagley Oval. New Zealand have successfully managed to keep the Kohli equation out of the matches despite suffering a whitewash in the T20s and will try to do that exactly when he walks out to bat for the final time in this tour.
“He has done it for long time and done it in all conditions. If the surface is conducive to sideways movement we will try and exploit that,” Latham concluded.