As India look to recover from a disappointing T20 tour of the United Kingdom, former batting coach of the Indian cricket team, Sanjay Bangar, has shed light on the extraordinary preparation undertaken by Virat Kohli back in the day, to conquer English conditions.
India’s tour has started on a disappointing note with a 0–2 T20I series loss to Ireland followed by a 0–3 deficit against England, prompting renewed focus on technique and adaptability ahead of the ODI leg under Shubman Gill, with senior batters Kohli and Rohit Sharma returning.
Recalling the way Kohli transformed himself after a poor 2014 England tour, Bangar said on the Great Indian Cricket Show on Doordarshan: “When you go to England, the entire game comes down to two things: how well you counter the swing, and how late you can play the ball.”
He added: “Because Virat Kohli did not have a great run during the 2014 tour, he put in an immense amount of work during 2017-18 to fix that.”
To replicate English conditions, India’s training sessions in Mumbai were intense but clever. “Our routine was brutal; we would hit Mumbai grounds by 6:00 or 6:30 in the morning just to chase the early dew. We wanted to start as early as possible so we could replicate English conditions, utilising the heavy morning atmosphere and the natural moisture on an uncovered pitch,” Bangar revealed.
He further disclosed the lengths they went to: “If the sun came out and the moisture on the wicket started dropping, we would literally pour extra water onto the surface just to keep the ball snaking around. Because three or four of our core batsmen managed to fine tune their batting through those exact simulations, we were highly successful in winning matches over there”.
“Virat did that gruelling practice repeatedly,” Bangar mentioned, emphasising how such meticulous preparations played a key role in India’s improved performances in England.
Follow RevSportz for latest sports news
The post ’We poured extra water on the pitch’: Bangar on Kohli’s England prep appeared first on Sports News Portal | Revsportz.
