Virat's modified stance helped him, says Gavaskar
Former India captain, and the first man to reach 10000 runs in Test Cricket, Sunil Gavaskar, has expressed pleasure over Virat Kohli’s modified batting stance during the 4th Test between India and South Africa at the Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi. Gavaskar had earlier criticised Kohli in the previous Nagpur Test, when the latter had gotten out to Morne Morkel, edging to the keeper.
"His head is definitely in a better position and that has enabled Kohli to cut out the risks on a challenging wicket," said Gavaskar while commentating on the Kotla Test.
In the previous Test matches against South Africa, as well as throughout the limited-overs series and the Sri Lanka tour, Kohli was seen batting with a stance in which his feet were wide apart from each other.
This stance, as Gavaskar had mentioned, shifted the batsman off balance when dealing with the deliveries outside off-stump. With Morne Morkel bowling a probing line, just outside the off-stump, Kohli was playing and missing, before he finally nicked one to the keeper Dane Vilas.
Technically, with the feet wide apart, in order to play a pitched-up delivery, the batsman has to go forward and across, if they are playing on the front foot and try to lean into the shot. If their feet are wide apart, doing this would become difficult as they then would have a tendency to fall over, i.e. loss of balance. This was what Gavaskar told after stumps on day 1 at Nagpur.
Whereas, when the feet of a batsman are closer, shifting forward and across the stumps becomes easier and he can lean low and defend, whilst playing the ball right underneath the eye. The head position then would be perfect and the head would not fall over the line of the ball.
Kohli had been using this stance in Australia, and to much success there, because the Aussie bowlers bowled the back-of-a-length delivery and short balls that suited their conditions. With a wide stance, it is easier to pull or hook, on bouncy pitches, by going back. But on these slow wickets, driving the ball with such a stance becomes equally difficult.
Kohli, though, is a quick learner, and he immediately made modifications to his stance while he batted in the Kotla Test where he got 44 and 88, with both the innings comprising fluent drives and cuts. He had had an ordinary series so far, but he made amends to that with a little correction in his technique.
His partnership with Ajinkya Rahane, who achieved a rare feat of hitting a century in both innings of a Test match, led India to a commanding position, setting South Africa a target of 481 runs to win the game.