As the Royal Challengers Bangalore limped out of the Indian Premier League, their captain Virat Kohli cut a very disconsolate figure on the sidelines and yet somehow managed to smile through all the brand endorsements.
The ever pugnacious Kohli looked jaded and fumbled for answers to the various queries which were floating all around about his captaincy and batting form.
The constant media glare can impede any sportsperson and even the jovial Kohli has finally realised the pressures of incessant expectations every time he walks out to bat.
However, when he leads the Indian cricket team for the match against Pakistan in the Champions Trophy, the man should be ready and pumped up to confront the new challenges. He is, after all, leading the defending champions and there is little doubt that the Indian batting order would once again revolve around their gun player, captain Kohli.
It is only fair to sit down and analyse the many strengths and the few technical deficiencies which might have crept into his game.
Strengths
1. Still head:
A moving head while facing bowlers is not the ideal way to start your innings. Not if you are Virat Kohli. A stoic head allows him to the track the length, trajectory and pace of the ball perfectly and this enables him to make decisions fractions of seconds earlier than the other players going around.
2. Decisive in the footwork:
In many ways, this is just an extension of the previous point, but then batting is one synchronous process and only if a number of boxes are ticked will a player be able to churn out runs.
As mentioned before, Kohli has the ability to pick up lengths very quickly and then his nifty footwork takes over. He is quick to use the depth of the crease if the ball is just short of good length and then quickly press forward to counter the fuller balls.
3. Supple wrists:
Over the years, Kohli has added many strokes to his repertoire, but one feature which has remained constant is his ability to manoeuvre the fields, and this can put down to the fact that his wrists are extremely flexible and rubbery.
The ability to find gaps in the field is an art and Kohli has mastered it as he allows the ball to come to him and then gently allows the wrists to do the job by placing the ball in the gaps.
Apart from this, he has a short back and across shuffle which allows him to meet the ball just beneath his eyes and with the use of the wrists can easily flick balls through the on side.
4. Balance at the crease:
With a perfectly balanced head and decisive footwork, balance is attained at the crease which helps Kohli to have complete control over his strokes.
A cover drive or a flick through mid-wicket requires just the perfect balance and this is where Kohli has jumped ahead of all his competition.
As mentioned above, with the use of wrists, he can carve out balls and with this perfect balance at the crease, he can play all around the ground.
5. Dominating spin
If the aforementioned points hold true against the pacers, Kohli has shown that he has a different modus operandi against the spinners. As mentioned before, he picks up the length very quickly and then goes right forward or right back to counter the spinning ball.
He keeps an eye on the ball and more often than not picks up the variations from the bowler's hands and has ample time to execute a stroke.
He is a bottom hand player but has very light feet and this enables him to get close to the pitch and this opens up all sides of the ground and he plays a stroke according to the fields.
And then sometimes he jumps out of the crease, makes room, slightly away from the pitch of the ball to lift the ball over covers.
Balance, poise, and those wrists all combined!
The Indian captain has 43 International centuries so far and he has only just started. His game looks complete and there is little doubt over his steely temperament.
So, then what are the few technical deficiencies?
1. Swinging ball outside off
As mentioned in Strengths (point 3), Kohli has a short back and across shuffle and where on one hand it enables him to flick balls through mid-wicket and square leg, it also opens up a slightly vulnerable aspect in his game.
When the ball is pitched up and it swings away, more often than not he goes for the drive and loses his shape and balance and nicks the ball behind.
Recently, he has started taking guard outside the crease in order to counter the swing and seam and it has given him some success, but his real test will be in swinging conditions in England and New Zealand.
2. Bumper following him
There are few better players of the bouncer in the Indian team than Virat Kohli as his ability to go back deep into the crease to encounter the bounce. However, having said that a steep bumper with a sharp angle finds him in some discomfort as he is late on his attempted pull stroke.
A minor blip in an otherwise glittering technique.
3. Lack of judgement against off spin
In the recently concluded series against Australia, Kohli did not look entirely comfortable against Nathan Lyon and fell prey to lack of judgement on more than one occasions against the spinning off break.
He back and across shuffles were not enough for him to decipher the line, flight and spin of the ball.
It has to be mentioned that Kohli has also dominated off-spin for a long time and hence this reversal should only be a minor hiccup.
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