Virat Kohli’s wicket is like bowling out entire Indian team, insists Saqlain Mushtaq
Saqlain Mushtaq has revealed that he often advises the English spinners to relentlessly attack Virat Kohli, who he called 11 players in one. He has also added that when the world is watching a player like Kohli, a bowler needs to be in complete control and be clear about his own game.
After the devastating 2014 tour of England, Virat Kohli turned the table in the 2018 tour, accumulating runs with surgical precision. James Anderson failed to dismiss him even once even though he had made the current Indian skipper his bunny in 2014, with Kohli scoring a staggering 596 runs in the five-match series.
However, spinners had a decent amount of success against him, with Adil Rashid’s delivery that pitched around leg, turned sharply and clipped the off-stump during the Headingley ODI, being the highlight of the lot. One of the finest spinners of his time, Saqlain Mushtaq, who has been associated with the English side for a long time now, revealed a chat with the spinners where he would advise players to consider Kohli as eleven players in one.
“Yeh ek nahin, yeh gyarah hai. I would just tell them Virat’s wicket is like bowling out the entire Indian team. He is like XI players in one, you have to see him like that. As a bowler you have to be clear in your mind. Yes, you have a world class player who is at the top of his game and does not face any issue against any type of spinner, be it left-arm, offie or a leggie,” the 43-year-old said in an Instagram Live with Nikhil Naz, reported Indian Express.
Speaking of the Rashid delivery, Mushtaq added, “It was a wide ball and had a lot of drift and clipped the bail. I would tell him to bowl Virat-wala delivery so that he keeps producing that at the nets. It’s about putting your soul into the ball. Yes he’s the No 1 player in the world. But if you put your plan, imagination, feeling and passion into the ball, you are no less.”
Shreyas Gopal, Rashid Khan, Adil Rashid and Adam Zampa have dominated Kohli in the last few years, deducing the fact that his game is comparatively weaker against leg-spinners. It was widely evident in the last ODI series between India and Australia, where Zampa dismissed him with an insane regularity, but Mushtaq feels that one needs to attack Kohli’s ego as a batsman to have a better chance against him.
“But I would tell them the pressure is more on him not you, as the whole world is watching him. You have to be clear in your mind. As the No 1 batsman, he will have an ego. If you bowl a dot ball to him his ego will get hurt. And if you trap him and get him out, he will be really sad. It’s a mind game, you have to keep your standard high.”