India vs New Zealand: Aakash Chopra narrates story of how Sachin Tendulkar helped Virat Kohli

Ind vs NZ: Kohli marched on to register his 58th ODI half-century, but was then immediately dismissed by a beautiful googly by Ish Sodhi.

Virat Kohli walked out to bat after the new Indian opening combination of Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal had put on 50 runs for the first wicket. However, the skipper was forced to be watchful up front as New Zealand sent back both the openers in quick succession. After assessing the conditions, the Indian captain hit his stride and soon the strokes started unfurling. A Kohli innings is incomplete without the aesthetic cover drive - there is a unique way to a Kohli cover drive. More often than not, there is a huge stride towards the ball which allows him to maintain his balance even as the bat meets the ball literally under his eyes.

Virat Kohli of India(Getty Images)

Hamish Bennett was the bowler who was bowling the 27th over. He bowled a ball which was full and was on the off stump. Kohli walked towards the ball, took out a long stride and caressed the ball through covers.

Discussing the same, Aakash Chopra and Harbhajan Singh, who were on air, said that Kohli had made concerted changes to his technique after the horrendous England tour back in 2014. Chopra went on to say how he sought the assistance of Sachin Tendulkar and the tips passed on by the little master helped Kohli play the cover drive with a lot more authority.

As per Chopra, Sachin had asked Kohli to take a longer strike, much in the same way, he meets the ball pitched up by a spinner. This has allowed the Indian captain to keep the bat close to his body and be in control of the drives even when he is playing on the up.

Kohli marched on to register his 58th ODI half-century, but was then immediately dismissed by a beautiful googly by Ish Sodhi.

Earlier, Tom Latham had won the toss and elected to field first.

“The five guys that are not playing are Pandey, Pant, Dube, Saini and Chahal. Kedar comes back into the squad, so he becomes a spinning option for us along with Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav. And the three seamers in the form of Bumrah, Shami and Thakur,” Kohli said at the toss.