2014 England tour a milestone in my career: Virat Kohli
India’s 2014 Test tour of England was nothing less than a horror show for current Indian captain Virat Kohli. The man who is arguably the best batsman in the world managed only 134 runs in 10 innings as the Indian team, under the leadership of MS Dhoni, were thrashed 3-1 by England.
Virat Kohli admitted to teammate Mayank Agarwal that his credibility as a Test cricketer suffered a severe blow in that one month in England. The Indian skipper revealed that he was worried about keeping the inswingers out but kept falling to outgoing deliveries in the five Test series against England.
“2014 will be a milestone in my career. Lot of people take good tours as a milestone. That tour of 2014 will always be the milestone in my career. From where I thought things might go bad for me very soon because the next big tour was Australia. I had to sit down and change the way I thought and approached the game,” Virat Kohli told Mayank Agarwal during a chat on bcci.tv.
“I started being more fearless, not in situations which sort of seemed easy, like in white ball cricket, you invariably knew what the situation was. You prepared yourself, you get motivated very easily. But Test cricket, when it gets tough, to maintain your composure is the most difficult thing for a cricketer. That is something I really needed to correct,” the Indian skipper added.
Virat Kohli currently averages 53.62 after 86 Tests with 7240 runs and 27 hundreds. In the next five Tests in England on the subsequent tour, Virat Kohli managed to score almost 600 runs including two hundreds and three fifties.
"If that tour hadn't happened, I would have continued probably the same way I was. I wouldn't have improved. That tour really made me think how I wanted to approach my career, 'Do I just want to be a pushover every time I played Test cricket?'.
"Basically I was too worried about thinking of the ball that might come in. That's why I was opening up very early and the ball that was going away was getting me every time. So I just couldn't get past that confusion,” Virat Kohli, who now has 727 runs from 10 Tests in England, added.
Virat Kohli credited Sachin Tendulkar and Ravi Shastri for helping overcome his failures
Virat Kohli said his conversations with Sachin Tendulkar and head coach Ravi Shastri after the England Tests in 2014 helped him overcome his failures.
"I came back, I spoke to Sachin paaji as well. I did a few sessions with him in Mumbai. I told him I am working on my hip position but then he made me realise the importance of a big stride against fast bowlers as well.
"So the moment I started doing that with my hip alignment, things started ironing out pretty nicely for me. I became more and more confident with following that pattern,” the Indian skipper revealed.
Virat Kohli said that India head coach Ravi Shastri, who was working as Team Director in 2014, called him to his room and gave him important advice.
"Well, it was after the England tour in 2014. He (Shastri) called me and Shikhar to his room. He called for a bat as well.
"He has such a keen understanding of the game. Little things that you do can make a huge difference, he knows that. He told me something, which I started practicing which is standing outside the crease.
“He explained the mindset behind it: 'You should be in control of the space you're playing and not give the bowlers to get you out. So many dismissals get taken out when you're standing outside the crease.' I started doing that in Australia and the results were unbelievable,” Virat Kohli informed.