The stance behind Kohli's dominance
Virat Kohli has enjoyed tremendous success over the past few years, but the once noticeable blight on his record remains India's tour of England in 2014.
India had gone on a two-month tour with five Tests, as many ODIs and one T20I but they had a tough time, losing the Test series 3-1 with Kohli averaging just 13.40.
India would go on to win the ODI series by the same margin, but Kohli was once again lacking, scoring 54 runs in four matches, with 40 in one innings heavily skewing the below-par average of 13.
Speaking to former England captain Nasser Hussain on bcci.tv, the India captain said that the reason he did not perform on that tour was because of his mindset and his batting stance.
“I put too much pressure on myself before going to England. 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,” said Kohli.
“Technique is important, but even people with not that strong a technique have been able to score well there because of a good mindset. The problem with me was that I was expecting in-swingers too much and opened up my hip a lot more than I should have done. I was constantly looking for the in-swinger and was in no position to counter the out-swing,” said Kohli.
He added: “I used to stand at two-leg [middle stump] and my stance was pretty closed. Then I figured out that after initial movement 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.”
In order to adjust his batting stance, Kohli did drills and had someone record him, ensuring that his toes would be towards point rather than cover. That helped him to get some room and a new, wider stance meant he would have better balance if he came forward.
“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 a short ball.”
The new method seems to be working wonders for Kohli. Since that tour to England, he has batted in 24 Tests at an average of 63.62, with nine scores of 100 or higher to his name. He also boasts a similar average in ODIs at 60.72 over 39 matches since that fateful tour.
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