I analyse everything about bowler: Kohli on batting

Team India skipper Virat Kohli has revealed that before facing a ball he analyses every minute details about the bowler. “I analyse everything about the bowler. If he had bowled a certain kind of delivery what was his body language at that time, was something different from his run-up or something was different with his wrist. Is he holding the ball in a different way? I have done that many times,” he said.

Kohli was speaking to cricketer Mayank Agarwal in the latest episode of the “Open Nets with Mayank”.

Kohli, who has 70 centuries across all formats, said that before facing the ball he checks how the bowler is holding the ball, his wrist position, or recalls the body language of a bowler when he had bowled a certain kind of delivery.

“And that’s a very amazing feeling when the bowler bowls where you had thought and then you smash it out of the park. Also for that, you need to be aware of what might he bring. When you are too focused on your fears you cannot notice anything you are just worried about ‘out nhi hona’. But when you are ready the fear goes away and you think how can I make the use of what best in front of me to come on top in this situation,” he added.

Kohli also told Mayank that his “character stood out for me than the number of runs you scored”, while explaining his decision to give the youngster a Test debut in the 2018-19 Australia series. Mayank had made his Test debut against Australia in the third Test of the fourmatch series. Playing the third Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Agarwal managed to register a half-century in his very first innings in the longest format.

“I had seen you play for RCB, even then you played international bowlers with conviction and you would take them on. You were performing in first-class matches in a dominating way. That is something always stood out with you, I would say your character stood out for me than the number of runs. I knew you would be fearless without having any baggage,” Kohli told Mayank.

“For me, the biggest marker is how a person approaches the game, so for example when you opened and we made Vihari open with you. The first opportunity we presented Vihari to open the batting, he said yes to it and that matters me to the most,” the skipper said. “I opened in my first series for India, I said yes to this opportunity and things worked out fine for me. So, a guy who wants to get into tough situations will come out either holding his head high or learning from his mistakes,” he added.

Kohli and Mayank would soon be seen in action for Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kings XI Punjab respectively in the Indian Premier League (IPL) starting from 19 September in the UAE.