London, Sept 12:
Former England skipper Geoffrey Boycott reckons Virat Kohli is still a marvelous talent despite his slump in form in the just-concluded Test series against England but urged the right-hander to work on his technique, which was exposed by Alastair Cook’s bowlers, none more than James Anderson.
The Delhi lad, who has six Test hundreds to his credit, managed a paltry 120 runs from the five Tests in England and failed to score a half-century in the four ODIs that followed, before reproducing his old touch with a swashbuckling 66 in the one-off Twenty20 International, albeit in a lost cause. Boycott said Kohli must now work on his technique to continue serving India in the years to come.
“The big factor (for India’s failure in the Test series) was Kohli. He has to work on his technique. He is a marvellous talent, a wonderful star of India but his technique was poor here in the Test matches. Jimmy Anderson ate him for breakfast,” Boycott wrote for gocricket.com.
“Every time Kohli came in, all he did was bowl at off stump, around the corridor of uncertainty and Kohli nicked it. He is playing with his bat too far away from his pad. He has to look at video replays of his technique and get back to basics,” added he. Boycott, a supremely solid player technically in his days, said like Kohli the other India players also struggled in trying conditions in England, because they failed to adapt to different pitches.
“People like Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, and Virat Kohli are top players and they’re not adapting. It’s just psychological; it’s in the head, nothing else. Half the battle is between the ears, you know. You can work on your technique with the coaches and develop it but when it comes to the big time, half the battle is won in the head, and the Indian players are just not doing that,” said the legendary batter. The great players of the past, Boycott said, had all been successful throughout their careers because they were able to bring about changes to their games in different countries. “Sunny Gavaskar played just as well abroad as he did at home, so did Sachin Tendulkar. And Pujara, Rahane and Kohli are all very good players, technically correct. You can’t tell me they’re not good. They are just not using the brain. They’ve all got the talent, they’ve just got to learn to adapt!” Boycott wrote. (UNI)
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