Brad Hogg highlights why Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma struggled against Reece Topley

Former Australia player Brad Hogg has shared why Team India’s dashing batter-duo Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma struggled against Reece Topley in the three-match ODI series against England. Topley removed Rohit Sharma twice while he dismissed Kohli once in the three-match ODI series. 

Left-arm pacers have become a big threat for both Kohli and Rohit in recent times as they are often seen struggling in the middle against them with the new ball.

The duo got dismissed by the left-arm seamers many times and that has hurt India in the past. Hogg has highlighted the issues of Kohli and Rohit against Topley in the ODI series as he feels they were comfortable facing Willey but struggled against Topley who forced them to play the ball away from the body.

“Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma get as forward as they can against Willey and they are comfortable playing on the front foot and driving him. But against Topley, who doesn’t bring it in as much as Willey and gets the extra bounce, they play from the body a lot more. And when it doesn’t come back in, it forces them to play away from the body, and that was their downfall," Brad Hogg said on his YouTube channel.

“England had plenty of options in the previous ODI series against India and Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli struggled against one of them. But it was set up from the other one," he further added.

David Willey and Reece Topley successfully troubled the opponents

Meanwhile, the legendary Australian spinner also said that the combination of Willey and Topley worked well for England against India as they successfully troubled the visitors’ batters.

“David Willey and Reece Topley were a very good combination. One, they have got variation in height, Topley is a lot taller than David Willey. But Willey swings the ball more and looks to go fuller than Topley," Hogg again said.

Meanwhile, in the series-decider, the star-studded Indian top-order failed miserably to counter-attack Topley’s swing as Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli edged the ball behind stumps to the slip and the wicketkeeper respectively. Shikhar Dhawan was also caught out in the point region. However, India won the game on the back of Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya.

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