Champions Trophy 2017 | Kohli opts for red ball throwdowns to counter swing

India will take on South Africa, the number one ranked team in ODIs later today at the Oval in a bid to advance to the semi-finals of the tournament. The match will decide the fate of India's title defence and Indian skipper Virat Kohli looked in no mood to squander away his wicket like he did in the last match against Sri Lanka.

With overcast conditions and seaming pitches, South Africa's lethal bowling duo of Morne Morkel and Kagiso Rabada can hit the deck and swing the ball both ways to trouble Indian batsmen.

However, Kohli seemed to have left no stone unturned to counter the potential threat of swing bowling. On Saturday, the Delhi batsman was the first to make his way out to the nets with fielding coach R. Sridhar, throwdown specialist Raghvendra and batting coach Sanjay Bangar, as reported by NDTV.

Kohli straightway occupied the middle net and was seen practising throwdowns given by Bangar with a red Duke ball used in Test matches. The Duke ball swings in the air and also after landing on the pitch whereas the white ball utilised in the ODIs does not move as much as its Test counterpart. 

After 25 minutes of an intense throwdown session, Kohli then faced Umesh Yadav followed by a short session with Indian spinners where Yuvraj Singh was seen rolling his arm over. One of Yuvraj's delivery turned and bounced catching Kohli by surprise to which the 28-year old replied "Match pepaatahoga (It will be a flat deck for the match)".

Indian head coach, Anil Kumble invested most of his time with seasoned spinner Ravichandran Ashwin who is expected to play against the Proteas. Later in the day, Kumble gave Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya lessons in spot bowling which would help the young seamers hit the right line and length during the match.

However, during the whole net session, the Indian skipper and the Indian coach did not interact with each other as the latter joined the spinners in the nets after Kohli had departed having taken the second round of throwdown from Bangar with the white ball.