India vs Australia | Aussie batsmen should learn from Virat Kohli’s batting, says Graeme Hick

From start the Boxing Day Test between India and Australia, the visitors have dominated almost all throughout the match. The foundation for which was laid on the first two days of the match when Indian skipper Virat Kohli and centurion Cheteshwar Pujara weaved a 170 runs partnership for the third wicket.

"We spoke about how Kohli went about it. We knew Pujara, even Kohli, one of the most explosive batters, got to 20 off 25, 26 balls, then the rest of his innings took whatever it was," Hick said on SEN on Saturday.

While Pujara made 106 runs from 319 balls which was close to the natural way he bats but captain Kohli played an uncharacteristic 82 run innings scoring at the strike rate of almost 40. Saying that Kohli batted with intent, the Australian batting coach commended him and asked his countrymen to learn from Kohli. 

"For the best player in the world to change his innings and play like that, if you can't be on the same field as him and watch him and learn from what he is doing, then you are in the wrong space. There are certain things our players can take out of that. It takes a lot of discipline, a lot of patience and, on top of that, you have got to bat with intent."

In the ongoing series, of all the batsmen from the Australian batting order, Nathan Lyon has the highest batting average of almost 38 runs which gives a clear picture of the Australian batters’ failures in the series. Explaining the same the coach expressed disappointment at the failures of his batsmen.  

"Our batting line-up has got a lot of learning to do. It's disappointing as a head coach. You feel if you are putting the work in and doing the right things, over a period of time, the players learn. Unfortunately, it's not the easiest thing to learn out in the middle at the MCG of the Boxing Day Test match.

He also urged the Australian batsmen to learn quickly at the International level as the competition is too intense at this level and players don’t get much time to correct their mistakes.

"You have got to learn quickly in international cricket these days because you don't get a lot of time to remedy what you might feel is wrong.

"They're certainly on top of their game and have a lot of international cricket under their belt. In some respects our batting line-up is maybe at the other end of the spectrum," Hick said.