In the glittering career of India’s premier batsman, Virat Kohli, the 2014 England tour turned out to be the most decisive.
Kohli’s horrid tour consisted of him getting repeatedly dismissed by James Anderson, on a similar fifth-stump line. He kept on nicking deliveries outside the off-stump, giving catching practice to the slip-cordon.
Now, six years down the line, Kohli has reflected on his forgetful England tour and treated it as a ‘milestone’.
“The 2014 (tour) will be a milestone in my career. Lot of people take good tours as a milestone in their careers but for me 2014 will be a milestone,” Kohli told Agarwal on ‘Open Nets with Mayank’.
Further, Kohli described how batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar and the then team director Ravi Shastri helped him overcome the shortcomings in his technique.
“I came back from England and spoke to Sachin Paaji and had a few sessions with him in Mumbai. I told him that I am working on my hip position. He made me realize the importance of big stride, a forward press against fast bowlers,” the Indian captain explained on the BCCI powered show.
“The moment I started doing that with my hip alignment, things started falling in place nicely and then the Australia tour happened. My hip position was an issue during that England tour. It was basically not adjusting to the conditions and doing what I wanted to do. So being rigid doesn’t take you anywhere. It was a long and painful realization but I realized it,” he added.
After putting in the work on his hip-alignment, Kohli’s technique improved multi-folds. Subsequently, Kohli accumulated tons after tons in the 2014 Australian tour, leaving behind his torrid England tour.
In 2018, when the Indian team toured England again, Kohli truly redeemed himself by not giving his wicket away to Anderson throughout the five-match Test series. Also, he ended up as the highest run-getter in the series.
