Sanjay Bangar impressed by Virat Kohli’s drive to improve

The ongoing series was considered as Virat Kohli’s final frontier and after the embarrassing performance of the last trip to the British Isle, he had a point to prove. And none had to actually wait for long to get a glimpse of the same as Kohli produced an innings high tenacity and exquisite skill. The performance not only helped India close the first innings lead to 13 runs, it also left a great impression upon his batting coach, Sanjay Bangar, who feels that Kohli’s drive and self determination to be better version of himself, everytime he walks out on that field to play, has made him such a reputed cricketer of the recent times.

“I would say that this innings showed different facets of Virat’s batting. The main thing is that Virat is flexible about his batting approach. Most of the batters are not flexible when it comes to changing technique or approach. But Virat in this respect is different. He showed terrific discipline I felt,” Bangar was quoted as saying by Scroll.

“At no instance did he reach out for the ball, and probably couple of our other batsmen reached out, which caused their downfall. But that is something, which we’ve been speaking of, practicing quite a lot. And on days, these things come off and on certain days those things don’t come out as a batter. Kohli’s drive to improve with every innings sets him apart,” the Indian batting coach, who played a crucial part in India’s memorable 2002 Headingley Test win over England, added. 

“He’s a versatile player. At times, quality players keep on assessing their own games and where they want to progress. The awareness that is required under certain conditions which may differ from SA, AUS to England, but he does that really well. This individual knock that Virat played might have given him a great sense of satisfaction – purely the job satisfaction that every professional aspires for. The standout part of this innings was that he was always playing close to his body and he waited for the right chances,” Bangar further added.

England produced a fantastic bowling display on Day 2, and taking no credit away from them, Bangar added that the dropped catches worked well on India’s favour.

“Once we got a good start, we should’ve capitalised on it. But the openers handled the new ball really well, and the angles that were created by Sam Curran - credit to him that he could create those angles. But if you see the difference between both sides, England is used to playing in these conditions and we don’t really play in these conditions too often, yet the gap is a mere 18 runs. Definitely the game is really well placed and Alastair Cook’s wicket has put the game in a very, very good balance,” quoted Bangar.