Thread by @gauravsabnis

Kohli departs after another start. But pundits will now go "he should convert the starts into centuries" as if he decided, nah, 35 is enough, who needs 100?

That's the thing about this lean phase for Kohli, Rahane, Pujara. They've been getting starts regularly.
#INDvSA

If a batter is getting starts, they are generally *NOT* out of form. You can't get to 25 regularly if you're truly out of form.

In such instances, more often than not, the "lean phase" is just a stochastic inevitability. In this case, remember, in the golden age of fast bowling.

What I'm saying is that Kohli and Rahane and to some extent Pujara are having a lean patch mainly because of "luck". Not in the colloquial sense but the way @cricketingview has explained "luck". It's a probability thing. Doesn't make for 2000 word essays, but that's it.

Anyway, this is one windmill I've tilted against in the past. But Indian cricket fan culture is way too scalp-hungry all the time to think, dudes are getting starts, opposition bowling & pitches are tough, team is winning more than ever, let's just take a deep breath.

I've watched almost every delivery of test cricket India has played since 1989. Rahane and Kohli are definitely not in the best batting phases of their lives. But if you actually watch them bat, there is nothing they are doing wrong, at least not obviously fixably wrong.

I mean "should not have chased a ball that wide" is not really the insightful analysis you think it is. Batters chase wide balls and get away with it all the time. The difference is often made on the slightest swing and deviation. Ngidi got swing this time. Kohli out.

Anyway, people who want to keep looking at those low averages over the last couple of years and wring hands and shed solitary tears for young players being denied chance and all, you do you.

But it's really weird, from where I'm looking, this scalp hungry mindset.