Former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh has backed Virat Kohli to bounce back strongly in the third Test after the prolific right-hander’s twin failures in the Pink ball Test. Kohli managed scores of 7 and 11 and perished poking the ball outside off, an area which has been troubling him for a long time now, and he is still looking for the solution.

As the Indian team prepares for the third Test in Brisbane, a stellar challenge awaits Kohli, a traditionally front-footed player, and the bounce at the Gabba will force him to play more on the back foot. Harbhajan feels that the 36-year-old Kohli will be aware of the challenge, and shared that the batter has already gone back to the drawing board to work on his backfoot game.

“I have played a lot of cricket with him. He is a front foot player. Knowing the bounce on Indian soil, you have to be on your front foot. The people who have played here, the likes of Ricky Ponting, Steve Waugh, Langer, Hayden, they were good back foot players, because of the bounce. It is the kind of bounce you get in Australia, you have to be a good bouncer. You need to have a good backfoot game. That’s what he was practising,” Harbhajan told Star Sports.

It hasn’t been a very productive year for Kohli as a batter this year across all formats. He has scored 611 runs in 21 matches to his name, averaging 22.62. While he managed to break the century drought in the opening Test in Perth, Kohli’s failure in the second Test meant he still had to work on his shortcomings to counter the Australian quicks.

However, Harbhajan felt that the veteran batter has the ability to bounce back from setbacks, and he has already started working in the nets to get back on track.

“Specifically I have noticed today. He was playing a lot of deliveries on the backfoot. He was going forward for the fuller ball but those balls which were slightly shorter than the length of the full ball, he was either leaving or trying to play them from the back foot.”

“He knows that Gabba will be a different wicket where he will get to face a lot of bounce and pace and that back foot game needs to be included in his game. Good to see him working on the game. I am sure, knowing Virat Kohli, we have seen him making a comeback after every setback,” the former tweaker said.

With the series currently locked at 1-1, the third Test of the Border-Gavaskar, starting December 14 at the Gabba, is expected to be a sterner battle as both sides are in the race for the crucial ICC World Test Championship final at the Lord’s in June next year.