Mark Boucher's advice to play short ball played big part in my career, feels Virat Kohli

04/27/2020

Virat Kohli has revealed that Mark Boucher, during the former's first stint in the IPL, advised him how to tackle short balls effectively, which he feels helped him become a better cricketer. Kohli has further given a shout out to Gary Kirsten and Duncan Fletcher for having a positive impact on him.

From being a brash teenager, who would just see ball and hit ball, Virat Kohli evolved to become the most complete batsman of the current time and easily, the best all-format batsman at the moment. Behind the amazing transformation lies his strong work ethic and commitment to evolve on a regular basis.

While overcoming the initial problems of playing the short balls to negating the outside off-stump problem to emerge victorious in the 2018 tour of England, he has come a long way. And in an Instagram Live with AB de Villiers, he spoke about the impact that his coaches had on him while crediting a conversation with Mark Boucher in his first stint at RCB in 2008 as a great influence.

"Pre-Gary, in the IPL when Mark Boucher kept telling you about me. He was the one guy who told me in 2008 that when I come to India 4 years from now to do commentary and I don’t see you play for India I’d be the most disappointed man in the world. He used to take me to the nets with a tennis ball racket and bowl bouncers and short balls. He told me, ‘if you wanna play international cricket, you’ll have to play the short ball, otherwise forget about it. So he had the vision, that was quite special,” Kohli said, reported Hindustan Times.

Gary Kirsten was the first coach under whom Kohli made his Indian debut and went on to become a World Cup winner too. He used to have a problem with his front foot falling over, but Kirsten advised him not to be fussed about that as long as his head remains still, which had a great impact on him. The Indian skipper also recalled the time spent with Duncan Fletcher for the way the former Zimbabwe cricketer changed his technical approach.

“Gary (Kirsten) was obviously the first coach that I interacted with when I entered the Indian team and he gave me just positive advice. I used to have a problem of my front foot falling too far across and I used to speak to him about this and he would say your head’s good, you’re not getting hit on the pads. So why are worrying about the front foot? The positive feedback helped me always. It was just the way to look at things.

“Then Duncan Fletcher… A keen eye for the game, got along well with him amazingly. He taught me so many things,” said Kohli.