One of the most productive shots of Virat Kohli through his career has been his glorious cover drive. However, while it has given him a lot of runs, it was also where he has had his troubles against throughout nicking those deliveries on the fourth and fifth stump line. In the recent tour to Australia, all his dismissals were identical. He flapped his bat around a delivery near his off-stump, which he edged to the keeper, and got himself out.
“To be brave enough and drive those balls on the up is going to get you in trouble every now and then, but you’ve got to counter-attack as well. If you get it right, it puts it back on the bowler. But yeah, when he was unbelievably still at the crease, his head did not move. He looked so difficult to remove, and the flair he had on both sides of the wicket is pretty cool,” Alyssa Healy said, speaking on the LiSTNR Sport podcast.
“Funnily enough, Mitch actually liked bowling to him because he was like just hang it outside off-stump and Virat loved to nick it. But that’s why I loved that. Everyone’s saying he had this technical flaw. Yes, because he wants to hit the ball, and that’s what he’s done throughout his career,” Healy added.
After his ton in Perth during the first Test in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, his form dipped. “I was in Australia over the winter and watched him have a tricky tour, but I still fully expected to see him in England this summer. Kohli struggled at first in England but was unbelievable in 2018 as captain, when he worked a method out and just left the ball. He was so patient for a player with so much attacking skill,” Former England cricketer Michael Vaughan wrote in his column for The Telegraph.
“All of his tours of England were up against James Anderson and Stuart Broad so I was really looking forward to seeing him take on a new England attack. His battles with Anderson, not least at Edgbaston in 2018, were magnificent, a great spectacle. It was a proper heavyweight contest, with two world beaters going up against each other. It was so enthralling,” he added. However, the 36-year-old has announced his retirement earlier and won’t take part in the marquee India vs England Test series starting in June.
