Virat Kohli’s batting philosophy
Photo - ICC
|| CF Correspondent ||
Indian skipper Virat Kohli insisted Tamim Iqbal certain batting tips during his Facebook live show on Monday.
The leading batman explained his thought process about his batting and the way he likes to prepare and here are the excerpts.
#Preparation
I don't have any set pattern for preparation. The only set pattern I have is fitness and my diet. I think training and diet should be consistent because if your body is in the best shape and you're feeling good mentally, you don't have any problems in your body then you can go out and be at your best every time. But I think when you are not getting confidence, not connecting the ball very well, then I want to do more batting practice until you get that one session where you get to realize that you have done perfect batting. When I get that satisfaction then I don't wait in the nets for more than seven or eight minutes. I try to practice the side-arm throw down for ten minutes and then I go away, because when you are doing good batting and you overdo it then it creates bad habits, because you started to think that you can hit every shot, so you started to hit whatever shot. For this you lose your body shape, get started t get frustrated, you play more and it gets damaged more. So, how much you have built up can go drain at one time. So this awareness should be in a batsman, he had to know that he had perfect in this session, so getting out of nets is also a skill, which is when I have to get out of the nets because that 10-15 minutes can be crucial.
it's a very individual thing. If you talk about Pujara [Cheteshwar Pujara] he will bat for three years. He will bat for everyone's. Everyone has their own template to create their own confidence. But I think that if my mental makeup is good and off the field when you like to go out for a coffee, go out for a walk when you are in a tour those things are also very important. You can't be intense every time. If your mental situation stage is good then you will go to the match with those good feelings, with confidence. Everyone knows how to play cricket. Sometimes we make it more complicated then we become into more pressure.
#Changing batting philosophy
changed because I thought personally that I wanted to play all over the ground and for that I felt that standing on the stance statically making my options limited. Like I was able to play the game in the same way, my basic understanding while batting always been that as long as your hips are in the best position to move then you can execute your shot by moving your feet in any direction. So, I felt that a static position was not working on my style of play. But then again it works on many people like Sachin Tendulkar used to play statically. He never faced any problem. His hand-eye coordination technique was way superior. So I had to change some to play my game and had to try something on different time. I wasn't able to understand until I try.
If you think that you want to try something in your game style then, of course, try that in your practice and more importantly try that in one or two matches.
Because I've experienced how much you try in practice but in a match pressure situation where you have a chance to get out, where the situation is not in control, you're also facing pressure from the opposition, you had to play a good innings, if you execute what you practiced then it will rise up your confidence level. I believe that practice gives you an assurance that you're ready but the confidence which gets higher comes after performing in a match.
#Adapt to changes
So the changes I had in my batting, I get through from this, if you try in the match for one or two times then it opens up if you are able to perform. So, you get a new option in batting. So, this is what I experienced myself.
Actually I trust those who told me, like if someone says to me that if you do this then you will get options. So, I thought that let's see what happens. So, luckily one or two times it happens that in first attempt such shot I made that I didn't think to execute before. Then your believes get increase, that you don't want to play like the same way, you will have to open your mind all the time and understand everything, learn things.
I saw many players that they had such a mindset like no, I always play like this. But the opposition will figure out you after sometimes, so, you have to go ahead of your games. That is the way you can perform consistently. So, I believe that batsman should be open for changes, try different things if it doesn't work then you carry forward the way you were playing. But if it works then you have to understand that those in the team environment, coaches are saying to you are saying for your own goods, for your own benefit, so the team gets benefited. So, if anyone says something in front of you then try and see what happens.
