Virat Kohli has forgotten to fail these days it seems. The Indian cricket team captain has time and again showed his teammates the way to succeed under pressure with a perfect technique. Something, which even the great Sachin Tendulkar has lauded time and again.
Against England on Sunday, Kohli again led the way with his 27th ODI ton, and 17th in chase, as India overhauled England’s huge total of 350/7 to go 1-0 up in three-match series.
Cut to 2014 and the case was not so as Kohli failed to get any 50 plus score in five Tests against England in an away tour. In an interview with former England captain Nasser Hussain on bcci.tv, he says chinks in technique coupled with desperation to succeed in England caused his downfall. He added that Tendulkar had a big role to play in correcting his technique.
“I had put too much pressure on myself before going to England (2014) that I needed to score here. I don’t know why sub-continent players are given different benchmarks that we have to perform in certain countries and if you don’t do that, you are not considered a good player,” Kohli said.
“I think it was more about me being desperate to do well in England and then when you don’t do well at start, you start going down mentally.”
And King @imVkohli starts off the series with a bang! The magic wand continues to weave, this time in Pune #TeamIndia @Paytm #INDvENG pic.twitter.com/P20vBXERoZ
— BCCI (@BCCI) January 15, 2017
World’s premier batsman then elaborated as to what went wrong. “Technique is important but even people with not that strong technique have been able to score well there because of a good mindset. The problem with me was that I was expecting inswingers too much and opened up my hip a lot more than I should have done. I was constantly looking for the inswinger and was in no position to counter the outswing,” he said,
Faulty stance
The India skipper then decoded his earlier stance. “I used to stand at two leg (middle stump) and my stance was pretty closed and then I figured out that after initial movement of the backfoot, my toe wasn’t going towards point rather it was towards cover point, so anyway my hip was opening up initially.
“So to get the feel of the ball, I had to open up my hip as I was too side on. Anyway, I had too much of a bottom hand grip and I didn’t have too much room for my shoulder, to adjust to the line of the ball, so it was getting too late when it swung in front of my eyes,” Virat explained as to why he was getting dismissed outside the off-stump during that series.
He then spoke about the changes that he made in his drills. “I did some drills, making sure someone is recording me from the side. Every time, I played the ball, I wanted to make sure that my toe is pointing in point direction rather than cover, that’s how I kept my hip nice and side-on and gave myself room. I widened my stance as well so that I have good balance when I wanted to go forward,” he said.
Success in Australia
Kohli then spoke about how things changed in Australia. “Short ball was not an issue for me. That really helped me in widening my stance and that forward press (front foot stride) that is important at the international level. So in Australia, I wasn’t worried about pace and bounce as I knew that I could handle it. But I stood a foot outside the crease to counter those deliveries on the corridor (of the off-stump) and standing on the fourth stump. So they had to really bowl far from me and unless my bodyweight is far behind, they can’t hit my pads.”
Help from Sachin
Kohli also said that the forward movement was something that the legendary Sachin Tendulkar also advocated.
“There Sachin helped as he told me that I have to approach a fast bowler (forward press) just like you approach a spinner. One has to get on top of the ball not worry about pace or swing, you got to get towards the ball and give the ball lesser chance to move around and trouble you. Those advice helped me and became my second nature.”
. @imVkohli & @JadhavKedar changed the momentum brilliantly & put the pressure back on Eng by playing some spectacular shots. #IndvEng
— sachin tendulkar (@sachin_rt) January 15, 2017
First win for 2017! Well done Team India, this is an amazing start to the year. Keep winning #INDvENG
— sachin tendulkar (@sachin_rt) January 15, 2017
Not an easy job at all
Although it looks natural now but Kohli said that it wasn’t easy at the beginning. “This change has become easy now but it was not so at the beginning. I was batting three hours a day. I had cramps in my forearms by the end of the week. I did that for about 10 days. You know in golf they say you have to hit a shot 400-500 times before you can perfect that shot. So it was more about precise practice as I wanted to tune my head to play that way. I wasn’t used to forward pressing as I was waiting for the ball to clip it off my leg or waiting for short ball.”
At the beginning of his career, he was primarily an on-side player with only cover drive as his pet scoring shot. But then he made slight adjustment to his grip and things changed.
“Bat speed has been natural to me more towards on-side as I have been a bottom hand player. I worked on my off-side play a lot more. I used to hit past covers a lot and straight but the shot I hit past point is helping me a lot now. It’s a very minor adjustment to my grip.
“I know bowlers are hesitant to bowl on my pads as I can whip them so I know they would bowl a bit wide and I get deep into my crease, open the bat face and hit the bowler past point. Once you do that, he can either move fielder towards right or left, but they won’t understand its a minor adjustment.”
His mere presence is intimidating for the bowlers but Kohli says that watching a bowler’s body language he understands the areas he can perhaps bowl.
“I don’t nominate too many areas. It’s like point, covers, straight and mid-wicket to cow corner. I know if the ball is in these areas my body instinctively follows,” he said.
Source: HindustanTimes