An opportunity to expand his scoring horizons made Virat Kohli change his batting stance, he admitted on a Facebook Live session with Bangladesh batsman Tamim Iqbal. Despite tasting success in his early years, Kohli went through a disastrous tour of England in 2014 which forced him to experiment a little by tweaking his techniques.
Image Courtesy: The Indian Express
“I changed because I wanted to score all over the ground,” Kohli said. “The static position was limiting my shot making options. It works for many. Sachin Tendulkar for instance, he had no issues because of his superior technique and hand-eye coordination. I had to tweak it to suit my game. When someone first told me it could open up my options, I thought of giving it a try. Luckily, it clicked and I immediately started executing shots which I never thought I could.”
The Indian skipper also emphasised on constantly evolving with practice and experiments as a tip to the budding cricketers. This is his way to stay ahead of the curve.
“I have seen many players who had such a mindset like ‘No, I always play like this’ but the opposition will figure out you after sometime,” he pointed out. “So, you have to go ahead of your game. Coaches are telling you for your own good, for your own benefit, so the team gets benefited. So, if anyone says something in front of you then try and see what happens.
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“I always feel you should be open to changes .You can’t stagnate, you have to keep learning. If you keep playing in the same manner, opposition will figure out your game. You have to be ahead of the game. So try it and drop it if it doesn’t work, but any batsman should be open to positive changes.”
The Indian captain, Virat Kohli, also restated that in order to boost confidence, experiment during the matches and not just confine them to practice sessions. “If you think that you want to try something in your game, then of course try that in your practice and more importantly try that in one or two matches,” he remarked.
“In a match pressure situation where you have a chance to get out, where the situation is not in control, you’re also facing pressure from the opposition, you have to play a good innings, if you execute what you practiced then it will raise your confidence levels. I believe that practice gives you an assurance that you’re ready but the confidence gets higher after performing in a match.”
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Kohli is not a believer of overdoing anything, be it practice or experimenting. He reiterated the importance of stepping out of the practice nets at the right time. This is essential for the body to understand its capacity and for the player to understand the areas he/she needs to work on.
“I try to practice the side-arm throw down for ten minutes and then I go away, because when you are batting well and you overdo it, then it creates bad habits,” he said.
“Because you start to think that you can hit every shot, you lose your body shape, start to get frustrated, you play more and it (confidence) gets damaged more. So, whatever you have built up can go down the drain. So this awareness should be in a batsman, he has to know that he had a perfect session, so getting out of nets is also a skill because those 10-15 minutes can be crucial.”
The two players connected on the social media platform on a live session as the games have been at a standstill due to the coronavirus pandemic outburst. Many sportsmen have been conducting live sessions on their respective social media pages and talking about several topics, especially what sports would look like post the pandemic times.
It seems Virat Kohli has given some on-point and crucial advice to all the upcoming players. Have you been following any of the cricketer’s live sessions? Let us know your answers in the comments below.
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