IPL 2019 | Virat Kohli’s enthusiasm and desperation to win is contagious, reveals Daniel Vettori

Daniel Vettori is widely regarded as one of the smartest players to have ever graced the sport of cricket. Vettori was captain of New Zealand from 2007 - 2011 and has since then taken to coaching and had stints with Brisbane Heat in the Big Bash League and Middlesex in the T20 Blast. Vettori was also the coach of IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore from 2014 to 2018.

Having seen the emergence of Virat Kohli as a natural leader, Vettori was quick to point out the 30-year old batsman as someone who had led the team by example in the RCB dugout. The 40-year old former spinner revealed that Kohli is someone who "relies on intuition" and is "exceptionally open to ideas".

"When I used to speak to him or any other coaches [used to] speak to him, there's always a conversation around what you think is best, where can this work. It wouldn't always be a numbers-driven conversation, it would be around some intuition and understanding of the game. I think, ultimately, when you sold a compelling story to Virat, he was always on board, open to listen and that made him such a good captain," Vettori said in ESPN Cricinfo Podcast.

"His energy, enthusiasm and desperation to win is contagious, and when you couple that with [him being] the best batsman in the world, and with a work ethic that has probably led India into the situation they are now . Everyone wants to follow his gym , and everything he does off the field, the way he basically prepares to play the game. That's a huge part of leadership. That's a huge part of captaincy."

Daniel Vettori, who took a total of 362 wickets from 113 Test matches, also spoke about the inclusion of Data Analytics and Statistics as a new coaching technique in modern-day T20 cricket.

"For me, I think there's such a strong correlation between thorough planning and the use of data to performance. I think it's so important because I think cricket, in general, is quite immature in terms of its exposure to this and...the sport I like is baseball, and I think they use it as strongly as anyone.

"The thing they have in their favour is huge sample sizes, and the thing that I always battled with [as a coach] was '[you say], here's a plan' and then go back to how many times it's worked. 'Oh, it's worked four times'. And four times doesn't seem like a lot to base things on. I think that's what [the challenge is]. When you're presenting to the captain or the owner or the rest of the coaches, you want to be overwhelming with it," Vettori added.