Virat Kohli reveals how he improved batting by observing AB de Villiers
Virat Kohli said he made a few adjustments to his game during India’s tour of South Africa after observing AB de Villiers bat
Virat Kohli has revealed the secret of his success in India’s last series in South Africa. Kohli had an imperious run with the bat on the tour, finishing as the highest run getter from either side in both the Test and ODI series. While he amassed 286 runs at an average of 47.65 from three Tests, his ODI numbers were mind boggling with a total of 558 runs at an astonishing average of 186 from six matches.
Talking about his purple patch in the series, Kohli has now admitted as to how he made a few adjustments to his game after observing South African star AB de Villiers bat. These adjustments, Virat said, helped him score prolifically in the rainbow nation.
“I actually learnt something from him in the recent Test series that we played. I made that adjustment to my game, which I haven’t told him about yet,” Kohli said during an interview with NDTV.
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“I used to tap my bat right at the end before playing a ball which worked for me in the shorter format where the ball was not moving that much. But then I saw him playing Bumrah and ball beating him but the ball won’t hit him because he was so correct with what he was doing. And then I wondered as to why I was edging the ball. I then went back and analysed and saw how still his head was. I then stopped tapping the bat and it made my head more still and I started scoring runs in the Test after that,” Kohli told NDTV.
Under Kohli’s captaincy, India staged a great comeback during their tour of the rainbow nation following a 1-2 loss in the Test series with a 5-1 victory in the ODIs. India went on to win the three-match T20 series 2-1 as well.
Kohli is currently captaining Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League. On Tuesday, he scored an unbeaten 92 against Mumbai Indians and became the leading run-getter in the IPL history surpassing his Indian teammate Suresh Raina. Kohli’s innings, though, went in vain as Mumbai Indians won the match by 46 runs.