Mental toughness of Virat Kohli: A lesson for other batsmen

Amidst the talks of technical adjustments that the Indian batsmen need to make to be successful in English conditions, Virat Kohli showed that being mentally tough is equally important.

His sublime innings of 149 at Edgbaston was not as much of the usual dominant Virat as it was of a Virat of character, especially the first half of his innings where he uncharacteristically struggled to comfortably time the ball or sometimes even put bat to ball.

He was getting beaten. Not all balls hit the middle of the bat. But that didn’t affect his mind which solely concentrated on how to successfully negotiate the upcoming delivery. The strength that other batsmen somehow lacked. For example, Ajinkya Rahane, despite his lack of runs, showed a great technique to counter swing.

In all the innings that he played, he started rather comfortably against the swinging ball. Playing late and meeting the ball under his eyes. All his dismissals were off the balls he shouldn’t be ideally playing. In the first innings at Edgbaston, Ben Stokes bowled a big inswinger which kept playing on his mind until he eventually nicked one playing away from the body.

Yes, it was a great spell of swing bowling on display by James Anderson and Ben Stokes, but Ajinkya Rahane couldn’t show the mental strength shown by his captain despite possessing a promising technique.

The spell of bowling from Anderson to Kohli was a great one where the former lacked a stroke of luck and the latter showed some excellent temperament. It was the period of play any cricket lover would relish. It was the battle that the highlights package doesn’t show. The fight that won’t have any of its trails on the scorecard that it eventually became.

You have to say Anderson won the battle but Kohli had the mental strength to overcome the loss; the strength that all the batsmen need to show to succeed overseas.