Any match situation, any contest, any tournament is special for Virat Kohli. He is always ready and raring to give it his best shot. But 2023 ODI World Cup, which will be a home event for the Indian team, could all the way be an emotional one for Kohli as it might just be his final shot at getting his hands on the trophy for the second time in his career. He had admitted a few many times that he barely could make sense of what it truly meant the first time, in 2011 World Cup, as the team was more adamant in winning it for the legendary Sachin Tendulkar, who shortly after bid adieu to the sport. 12 years later, as Kohli stands at the same stage as that of his idol Sachin, former India head coach Greg Chappell narrated a never-before-heard anecdote of the batting great in predicting the former India captain's fate in the impending ODI World Cup.
Speaking on YouTube show Backstage with Boria, Chappell, who worked as an India head coach between 2005 and 2007, recalled an interesting conversation with Sachin around the time of his appointment about his batting and why it gets difficult as the career goes on. The former Australia cricketer then explained to him saying that with more exposure, opposition attack tends to know the strengths and weaknesses of a batter, leaving the player himself to act accordingly, which often leads to complications in dealing with even the simplest situation.
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“He is a champion player and the big matches will be the ones he will be aiming for. He wants to perform well in every tournament he plays. It was interesting...soon after I started coaching for India, I was in my room in the hotel when the phone rang and it was Sachin. He asked whether he can come and talk to me. He then came down and the question he asked was, 'Why does batting get more difficult? It should surely get easier'. I said, ‘Not really,’” Chappell recalled.
{{/usCountry}}“He is a champion player and the big matches will be the ones he will be aiming for. He wants to perform well in every tournament he plays. It was interesting...soon after I started coaching for India, I was in my room in the hotel when the phone rang and it was Sachin. He asked whether he can come and talk to me. He then came down and the question he asked was, 'Why does batting get more difficult? It should surely get easier'. I said, ‘Not really,’” Chappell recalled.
{{/usCountry}}“When you are younger and you are playing the game, you see the ball and hit the ball. You only think about scoring runs then and not anything else. As one gets older, the oppositions tends to know more about the player and then they know how to bowl better and what fields to set. Then you also realise how hard it is to perform at that level constantly and how much mental hard work it requires to score each run. Hence, to score like you were young, you have to think like how you were young. And that means getting rid of some of these extraneous information, keep it simple and focus on the basic things.”
The former top-order batter, who represented Australia in 87 Tests and 74 ODIs, hence left the same suggestion for Kohli as he had given a young Sachin, and admitted if the senior India batter can keep himself mentally fresh for the 50-over event, he can end up having an impressive outing.
“I have no doubt that Virat is in that stage of his career and hence it requires a special effort to score runs. And for that you need to decompress yourself and just keep it simple. Virat also needs to go into these games mentally fresh and he knows what he needs to do for that. If Virat can achieve that, he will have a very good tournament,” he added.
The ODI World Cup begins from October 5 onwards at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. India will begin their campaign from October 8 onwards when they take on five-time champions Australia in Chennai, but the blockbuster clash against Pakistan in October 14 in Ahmedabad remains the cynosure of the team's fixture. India will be playing in eight of the 10 venues for the 2023 World Cup with their final league game against qualifier Netherlands on November 12.