Geoffrey Boycott: Virat Kohli needs to work on his batting technique

Indian batsmen have to learn to adapt to conditions, says Geoffrey Boycott

England batting great Geoffrey Boycott has urged Indian batsman Virat Kohli to go back to his basics and work on his technique. Kohli had a forgettable series in the Old Blighty, scoring only 134 runs in the Test series and 54 in the 4 ODI matches that followed, before reaching to his first 50+ score in the only Twenty20 match of the tour.

In his column for Gocricket.com, Boycott wrote: "The big factor (for India's failure in the Test series) was Kohli. He has to work on his technique. He is a marvellous talent, a wonderful star of India but his technique was poor here in the Test matches. Jimmy Anderson ate him for breakfast”.

"Every time Kohli came in, all he did was bowl at off stump, around the corridor of uncertainty and Kohli nicked it. He is playing with his bat too far away from his pad. He has to look at video replays of his technique and get back to basics."

Problem is in the heads

Attributing the failures of the Indian youngsters in overseas conditions to psychological reasons, the 73-year-old said: "People like Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, and Virat Kohli are top players and they're not adapting. It's just psychological; it's in the head, nothing else.

“Half the battle is between the ears, you know. You can work on your technique with the coaches and develop it but when it comes to the big time, half the battle is won in the head, and the Indian players are just not doing that.

"Sunny Gavaskar played just as well abroad as he did at home, so did Sachin Tendulkar. And Pujara, Rahane and Kohli are all very good players, technically correct. You can't tell me they're not good. They are just not using the brain. They've all got the talent, they've just got to learn to adapt.”

While MS Dhoni’s men lost the Test series 1-3, they turned the tables on England by winning the ODI series 3-1, before going down again in the T20 fixture.