To move ahead, Kohli must go back

The year 2018 was significant for Virat Kohli. That year, on the tour of England, he showed the cricketing world he was an all-time great. This was after his conquest of English conditions and winning of the battle against another all-time great, Jimmy Anderson. On the earlier tour in 2014, Anderson had tormented him outside the offstump, Virat had finished with a series average of 13!

I believe, while making this brilliant comeback in England, Virat may have also sowed the seeds to his current problems.

In England 2018, Virat found a solution to his issue outside the off-stump by standing outside the batting crease and taking a big stride forward to negate the swing, a common ploy used by batters to counter late swing.

Virat has been a predominantly front-foot player, but in this series, he made a greater commitment to front foot play, to the extent that he completely abandoned the back foot game and with it the age-old principle of playing the ball late.

He ended up having a phenomenally successful series, the ball was darting around and batters from both sides were really struggling in difficult batting conditions, Virat finished up with almost 600 runs in five Tests while the next highest run-getter from both sides was just about 300.

I feel though it was not so much the front foot play that helped Virat excel in England and tame Anderson, it was more his mental toughness... the mind over matter thing (which is his greatest strength, by the way) that enabled this great feat.

When I say mental toughness, I mean him leaving balls outside the off stump, and mind you, these were not a few balls, he left a million balls outside off in that series and it was only towards the end of the second and start of the third Test that Virat started playing the cover drive with some freedom.

The cover drive is Virat’s primary shot. So, you can imagine his mental fortitude, that he was able to control his instinct over such a long period showing his exceptional ability, and thereby confirming his greatness as a batter in all conditions. And it is for this reason I believe that his mind is not the issue today but it is his technique.

Technique’s importance in cricket can be overrated; we keep hearing that from everyone, even the greats, that it’s your mind/temperament that sets you apart as a competitor. But technique cannot be completely disregarded.

I wonder if Virat has been doing this for the last few years and putting all his efforts into fuelling his mental strength in pursuit of excellence for that has been his modus operandi, willing himself to the next level, whether it is playing incredible match- winning innings or his physical fitness.

This complete faith in his technique of standing outside the batting crease and getting a long way forward to all kinds of seam bowlers is not helping him at all. It’s making his path back to form that much more arduous.

In South Africa, in the last innings of the series, he scored 29 runs in 3 hours 13 minutes at a strike rate of 20.27. This was clearly evidence of a man whose self- confidence has dipped but the brass tacks of the matter was also him making the life of bowlers very easy by playing one way to all lengths and denying himself the reflex shots that get you the all-important ones and twos.

When you don’t move your feet as per the length of the ball, you really constrict yourself as a batter. Joe Root currently is a great example of a batter who is hard to pin down. Before you know he is on 40, and that too without hitting too many boundaries.

Granted he is at the peak of his career and hence is able to do all this instinctively, but such batters are very hard to bowl to because a slight deviation from good length and they are able to score without taking risks, by way of dabs here and there, both off the back and the front foot.

Promising signs in Manchester

I was very excited watching Virat’s innings at Old Trafford on Sunday even if it lasted only 22 balls; it gave me great hope.

Virat played at least 5/6 balls in that innings like he hasn’t done for a long, long time. He played a couple of shots behind square on the leg side; that was because he was taking a much smaller stride forward, so was able meet the ball a bit later than usual.

He got the natural advantage as batter—when you play late, you get the width that comes from the late movement of the ball.

This allows to you keep the scoreboard ticking. The golden rule of batting — the later you play, the more room you get to score on either side of the pitch.

There were distinct attempts, I thought, to play off the back foot and twice in that innings I saw both his feet inside the batting crease... it was a sight for sore eyes. For me it looked like Virat was rewinding the clock, to the time when he was not just a front foot player, keen to meet the bowler half way down the pitch, but one who also used the space behind the batting crease. Maybe, finally, the great batter is casting an eye on his technique.

That path now may not seem as arduous.